A New Beginning
by jon08
Summary: Dudley questions his life after the dementor attack and attempts to begin anew with Harry
1. Chapter 1

A New Beginning.

By Jon08

Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

I have always thought that a lot is left out of the books about Dudley. What did he see when the dementors attacked him? Why did he put that cup of tea out for Harry? Did he try to change himself because of it?

A New Beginning

Dudley was squeezed between his parents on the sofa staring at the old man who had come to see his cousin; the glass that he had conjured for him was hitting him on the forehead.

The strange creature that he had called to see Harry had just vanished with a loud crack, and the crazy old man was shouting at his parents about how much they had abused Harry and Dudley. It made him think about that night a year ago, when that Dementoid thing attacked him and he saw all the rotten things he had done to Harry, bullying him and making his life a misery. He had been a terrible cousin; they could have been friends with each other. He saw that he could become a clone of his father, an overweight bigot. He wanted to say something to Harry but the old wizard was taking him outside to take him to those red headed friends of his.

His parents were making a lot of fuss about rude people of the wrong sort and how ignorant that sort of people were. They shouldn't be allowed out in decent company. It was wrong, couldn't they see the wrong they had done to both the boys in their care. He was a fat, underachieving bully and Harry had been abused for years, by them, and he was ashamed to admit it, by him...

He made an exit and said he was going to bed, his mum looked at him. "Is my Diddykins alright, that weirdo didn't do anything to you did he? Vernon, maybe we should take him to the hospital, get him checked out?"

"What admit that some weirdo came into our house and might have done something to our son, they'd have us committed to a hospital for psych evaluation and put Dudley into care! No, Petunia, I'm sure that weirdo didn't do anything to him. He was too busy accusing us of abusing him; as if we'd abuse our wonderful son!"

Dudley went up the stairs to his room and lay on the bed, thinking to himself. He was going to change. He could make something of himself. He was not going to be a bully anymore.

That term at Smeltings, he spent more time in the gym, not just training with the boxing, but to lose some weight. He worked hard to try and do well in his classes, it was not easy, he was not the cleverest person in the world, but he was definitely not an idiot.

The teachers were impressed with his new attitude to school work, his new improved stance against bullying. The amount of bullying in the school had gone down, but that was mainly because the main culprit had stopped bullying.

His parents were so pleased that the teachers were finally 'realising the potential of their wonderful boy.' They just didn't realise that the change was all his own work. He was working hard at his schoolwork, probably for the first time in his life. They just couldn't see that their treatment of him had held him back. He had thought he was so perfect, his parents special boy. He really didn't know that much about his cousin, just that he was a wizard. He refused to call him a freak anymore. The trouble was that he had no way of finding out anything out about the world Harry lived in. There was nothing on the internet about that school of his, Hogwarts, he wasn't even sure if he had the name right. The only time his parents talked about the school, they called it 'that freaky place,' or something equally insulting. The last time that he had heard the school's name had been years ago when Harry read the letter and that giant bloke had given him a pigs tail.

He had no way to contact Harry, he couldn't write to him, because wizards used owls for post and he didn't know or where to find an owl anyway. Even if he did find an owl, what address would he put on it, how would he pay for it anyway, he was under the impression that wizards had their own currency. He had no way of finding anything out about Harry anyway. The lies his parents had told over the years had the neighbours thinking that he was an incurable criminal going to St Brutus' School for Criminally Incurable Boys or some such rubbish. His parents really were idiots. All he really knew was that his mum hated him for some reason, to do with her sister; he tried, but could not remember if he had ever heard his Aunts name. His mum just referred to her as her freak sister and his Uncle as that awful man.

He could have been friends with Harry all that time. It would almost have been like having a brother. In a way it made him envious of his friends who had brothers... Saying that, he wasn't really sure he had any real friends, they stayed in his good books because they were afraid he would beat them up if he didn't.

He woke sweating in the middle of the night, with one of the infrequent nightmares, he had about that night that Harry saved his life, but there was another detail in his mind. There had been somebody else with them as Harry helped him home. Someone he knew, who was it? It had to be someone local, he knew this person. Someone he could speak to about Harry, find out what had happened to bring him to their doorstep all those years ago.

He lay awake in bed for the rest of the night trying to remember more details from his nightmare, who was that person who came back with Harry and him? It must be someone that knew the truth about Harry. They had told him not to put his wand away. They had seen Harry and him home. They had cussed about someone who was meant to be watching Harry. They had said that someone should contact somebody called Dumbdore or something, who was it? Then some smelly old tramp type had arrived with a clap of thunder and they had started hitting him with an umbrella, who was it? The tramp had disappeared with a bang again and Harry had supported him back into the house. Mum and Dad had taken him to hospital. Who was it? There had to be some way to remember who it was.

Eventually he got up and went downstairs to do himself some breakfast, still trying to remember who had been with them that night. His Mum was in the lounge, cleaning the carpet where that thing had been screaming on the floor. 'Creature' was that what Harry called it before it disappeared with a bang. That wasn't important though, he needed to figure out that link to Harry. "I'm going out Mum," he called as he walked out the door.

He walked round the estate racking his brains trying to figure out who had been with them that night. As he was nearing home again he saw something out of the corner of his eye. There was a cat sitting in front of the neighbour's car. A cat! Why did that mean something? Why was there a cat under their car, they didn't have a cat? The cat seemed to be watching him. What was it with that cat?

As he reached the door and was getting his keys from his pocket, he saw the cat get up and stretch and start to go somewhere else. Then it struck him, 'Mrs. Figg,' was that who had been there that night? Mad old Mrs. Figg with all her cats, she had looked after Harry when he was smaller and Mum and Dad had taken him out for some treat or another. No, he must have it wrong, Harry had hated Mrs. Figg's, and he remembered him moaning at some point about the smell and all the cats. It couldn't be her...

As Dudley sat eating a healthy sandwich for his lunch, he thought about the connection he had made earlier, was it really that odd old lady? His mother was trying to persuade him to let her cook him something proper for his lunch, a growing boy like him needed proper food, not the rabbit food that had been imposed earlier in his education by the school nurse. With a look of partial contempt towards his Mum he put his plate in the dishwasher and went outside again to work through his dilemma.

He had been walking round the estate before lunch, but decided now he needed to up his ante and put a bit of proper exercise under his belt for today, so to speak. He had been jogging for maybe ten, fifteen minutes when he noticed a familiar figure walking down the road, some distance in front. It was Mrs. Figg; she had obviously been to the local store and was going home to feed her cats. Dudley picked up his speed and tried to get near enough to speak to her. He called her name, and she must have heard him as she quickened her pace into her front door, which was quickly shut behind her. Locking him outside.

Damn! Was she that afraid of him? He didn't think that he had ever beaten her up, but was sure he had probably called a few bad names in the past. He really had been a prat. He sat outside on her wall for a few minutes trying to think about how to proceed from here. He really wasn't sure if it had been her that night. He didn't want to talk about Harry's world if it hadn't been her. He could remember when Harry had made a cake hover and fall on Mrs. Mason's head before his second year. He had got a talking letter about under age magic in front of a 'Muggle?' Whatever that was?

He decided to knock and ask, being as vague as he could, but still showing that he knew what he was talking about. "Mrs. Figg, I really would like to talk to you about my cousin Harry and the night you helped him get me home last year!"

He heard Mrs. Figg, speaking through an open window, "Go away, I don't know what you're talking about!"

Something in the tone of her voice gave her away; he knew she wasn't being truthful about this! It had been her...

"It was the night I was attacked by that dementoid thing. You told Harry not to put his wand away and were swearing about somebody who should have been guarding Harry. Then you attacked some smelly wizard who appeared at our house and he vanished again. Please could you help me understand all this?"

"Go away, or I'll call the police."

This was not going to be easy, she was obviously still afraid of him; he had to admit it was his own fault. He hadn't been the nicest of boys of the area and she just didn't trust him. What was he to do? Obviously his running to catch her up had been taken as a threat, he was going to make a change to his approach to this.

Two days later, he was back at Smeltings with no further progress made; he had not seen Mrs. Figg doing her shopping or any sign of her cats. He was sure no that it had been her that night. She could be the only person that could help him understand all about Harry and his world. He had no way to talk to her now until Easter, when the school next broke up. That was far too long, what was he to do?

That weekend he had it! He would write to her and apologise for scaring her the other day and tell her as much as he could remember about that night, asking for more information about Harry.

Dear Mrs. Figg,

I am writing to apologise for the other day when I ran after you, calling at you to attract your attention, I realise this may have been taken as hostile. I did not want to alarm you, but ask for your help.

That night last year when Harry saved me from that dementoid thing, you accompanied us home and were talking to Harry as if you knew what had happened. You told Harry not to put his wand away, then at our house you battered some smelly wizard who appeared in the garden and told him to speak to someone, Dumbdore was it? You mentioned you were something that like a squid although I know that can't be right.

Please could you help me understand what was and is going on? I want to know why Harry needed guarding? What happened so that he was left with our family? Mum won't talk about any of it. Whenever she mentions her sister, my aunt, she calls her a freak. I don't even know what her name was.

Please could you write and give me some answers?

Yours hopefully,

Dudley Dursley.

The letter had taken most of the weekend to write and he didn't post it until late on the Sunday night. He thought it might get to her by the Tuesday and hopefully he would get a reply by the end of the week.

Two weeks passed, and still no reply. He was seriously wondering whether to write another letter or wait until term was over and try and speak to her again.

At the end of the second week, he had decided that he write another letter the following weekend, again asking for help. On that Wednesday he got a reply.

Dudley,

Sorry this letter has taken so long. I have been trying to decide what information to give you, there is obviously a lot you want to know and I really am not the best person to tell you, being a 'Squib,' not squid, a squib is a child born to magic parents who have no magic at all. You are a 'muggle,' this being what wizards call the general population who have no magic. Some information I have had to get from 'Dumbledore' who is the current headmaster of Hogwarts, the real school your cousin attends. Details in this letter will be skimpy; I will give you more during the holidays if you want it.

Around the time your cousin and you were born and earlier there was a period that is known as the Wizarding War. There was an evil wizard called Voldemort, who was trying very hard to take over the magical world. A prophecy was made that Harry, yes your cousin, was going to be the wizard to finally defeat him. He decided the best way to do this was to kill Harry before he could learn any magic and before he was a threat.

With the help of one of your parents supposed friends, Peter Pettigrew, he found out where your Aunt 'Lily' and Uncle 'James' lived and went there to kill Harry. He broke into the house, murdered your Uncle and went to find Harry. Your aunt tried to protect Harry and gave her life to try and save him. This special sacrifice was what made being with your parents the best protection Harry could have. It made Harry safe as long as he was with members of his family. Your mother and you were the only living blood relatives that Harry had. When Voldemort tried to kill Harry that protection acted like a shield and reflected the spell back at Voldemort and he died.

However, this was not the end of him, using very dark magic, Voldemort had split his soul into several pieces to try and become immortal. One piece was dead and that left many other pieces still around.

Around the time your cousin first went to Hogwarts, one of these pieces of Voldemort's soul had possessed a wizard called 'Quirrell.' This was professor Quirrell at your cousin's school. He was trying to get a magical artefact that would give Voldemort a proper body of his own again and allow him to continue his battle to take over the world again. He was defeated by an eleven year old wizard, called you guessed it Harry Potter. It was the bond of love that your aunt had protected Harry with that defeated Voldemort again.

In Harry's second year a secret chamber in the school was opened by a student who was being given instructions via an enchanted book. This chamber hid a magical creature called a basilisk, rather like a venomous snake that can also kill just by being looked at. Once again Harry was the hero; he killed the basilisk and destroyed the book that was at the root of the problem with one of the snakes fangs. Basilisk Venom is very very toxic and there is only one known cure, and that is extremely rare.

In Harry's third year his godfather who had wrongfully been imprisoned for the betrayal of your aunt and uncle and the murder of the real betrayer, Peter Pettigrew, Pettigrew was a special type of wizard who could change into an animal, and he was a rat. Sirius Black escaped from wizard prison determined to kill Pettigrew, the crime for which he was imprisoned. Everybody believed that he was on Voldemort's side and trying to kill Harry. In the end Harry proved to Dumbledore that Sirius was innocent, and helped him to get away. Unfortunately Pettigrew also escaped, so Sirius was still wanted by the authorities who still thought him an escaped killer.

In Harry's fourth year there was an international competition between three European schools of Magic, Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons. According to the rules this only open to wizards over 17, but an agent of Voldemort in the school, magically disguised as a teacher entered Harry's name into the competition. You should be very proud of Harry, with a little prompting from his teachers he got to the final challenge in second place. He and the other Hogwarts student, Cedric Diggory, reached the cup and were magically transported to a graveyard where Cedric was killed and a complex spell was performed by Pettigrew who had rejoined his old masters side and Voldemort was back. Voldemort tried to kill Harry, but he managed to get to the cup and return to the school warning everybody that Voldemort was back. Of course, no-one believed or wanted to believe him, with the exception of Dumbledore and a couple of Harry's friends.

During that summer is of course when you and Harry were attacked by the Dementors. There had been wizards set by Dumbledore to guard Harry at all times in case Voldemort tried to kill him. The wizard guarding him that day was Mundungus Fletcher, a petty criminal, who had skived off to make a dodgy business deal. In case you don't remember Harry had to go before the wizards' court on trumped up charges because he had used magic in your prescience to get rid of the dementor. Again, you should be proud of Harry, this spell called a Patronus, which he mastered at thirteen, isn't usually taught until you are sixteen. I myself testified on your cousins behalf at this court case and he was eventually let off.

During all this period the wizard paper was trying to make Harry out as a publicity seeking liar and Dumbledore out as incompetent and senile. There was a new teacher, teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts, this year. A ministry crony whose real purpose was to get Dumbledore fired and make sure the students didn't learn any defensive magic as they wrongly thought that Dumbledore would stage a revolution against the wizard government.

Some of the students in Harry's year decided they needed a better teacher in this subject and asked, you'll never guess, Harry. In the course of his years at school he had learnt a lot of strong defensive magic. Reluctantly he agreed. Harry was a very good teacher and managed to teach his fellow students some very good defensive spells. During this year Voldemort was trying to get a copy of the original prophecy that had said Harry was the only wizard who could kill him. He had only got part of it from his spy when he had tried to kill Harry as a baby. Copies of prophesies are kept in a special vault at the ministry and can only be retrieved by the person about whom they are made. He tricked Harry into believing that Sirius was at the ministry and being tortured to make him get the prophecy. Harry being the boy he is decided to 'rescue' Sirius from the ministry by himself. Some of his fellow students that he had been teaching decided to go with him. Whilst trying to find out if Sirius was really at the ministry, Harry and his friends were caught by Professor Umbridge, the useless defence teacher and ministry agent that had been foisted on the school. They managed to convince her they were trying to tell Dumbledore that 'his secret weapon' was ready. There was no weapon. The led Umbridge into the forest where she was captured by some centaurs and Harry and his friends went to the ministry to rescue Sirius. Of course what they found was a trap. Seeing the prophecy about himself and Voldemort, Harry removed it and immediately lots of Voldemort's followers appeared. During the fight that followed the copy of the prophecy was destroyed before Voldemort could hear it. Voldemort came to the ministry to fight Harry and to retrieve the prophecy and in the process was seen by the Minister for Magic and a lot of other Ministry employees. Finally Harry was seen to have been telling the truth.

I know this is missing a lot of detail, but it is all true. If you want to know more, I will tell you when you come home at the end of term. Please write and let me know.

I await your reply,

Arabella Figg.

This was a lot to take in, his scrawny cousin was a lot more than he appeared, he was grateful that Harry was not allowed to do magic outside school. Just thinking of all the things that he had heard that magic could do was frightening. Harry could have turned him into a toad, or blown him up like he did Aunt Marge at the start of his third year. Thankfully, she had forgotten that, probably more magic. Who had done that? There was still a lot he didn't know, but now he knew a lot more than he had. He was determined that he was going to make up for what he had done to Harry. Harry had risked prison to save his life? If it had been him in that position when those dementor things attacked he wouldn't have done what Harry did.

The letter told him a lot more than he knew, but he still wanted to know more. Harry's parents had been murdered? His Mum and Dad had always told him and Harry that they had died in a car crash. Hang on though; hadn't Mom shouted something about them being blown up, on the night of Harry's eleventh birthday, when that giant bloke gave him the pigs' tail? How could Harry do magic that was not taught until he was older? He had no idea his cousin was so clever at school, that he had time to do extra work; he could barely keep up with the set work. It meant that he would have to write back to Mrs. Figg and see her over the holidays. It was something he needed. He wanted to understand everything.

It was odd talking to Mrs. Figg. He had learned quite a bit about his cousin. Harry's world was complicated, him being a hero of the wizarding world. He couldn't envisage Harry as a hero, but he could see that he had been through a lot. He didn't need to be bullied at home, he needed his family to support him, be there for him. However, his father wouldn't understand that, Dudley could see that. Vernon Dursley was a bigot, anything different was wrong. He would rant and rave at the television whenever anything went against his worldview, which was anything from bad weather to homosexuals, soap opera plots to magic. If Dudley wanted to reconcile with Harry he was going to have to do it behind his father's back. He didn't want to lose his family, and that meant Harry too.

He learnt from Mrs. Figg why Harry was placed with his family all those years ago, the magical bond of protection that kept him safe until he came of age, which would end before his next year at school started. What was going to happen to Harry then? What would happen to Dudley and his parents when this dark wizard came looking for Harry? Would the people in Harry's world just abandon them, because of the way that they had abused Harry? It was frightening to understand that Harry would soon be in danger of dying soon, that he would be as well. Mrs. Figg assured him that plans were being made to make sure the whole family would be safe, although she had no idea what they were. That was a little reassuring, but he wondered if it would be something like witness protection that he had seen on television, where all contact with former friends and family was lost. He didn't want to lose track of his cousin, when he was just coming to understand and care about him.

Dudley stood outside Harry's bedroom door wanting to go in and say he was sorry for how he had behaved all those years, but couldn't think how to begin the conversation. He had done this several times since Harry had come back from Hogwarts, but he lacked the courage. He could hear sounds coming through the door, several large heavy something's, books maybe, were being removed from Harry's school trunk and thrown on the floor or the bed. He heard movement downstairs again and Dad pausing at the bottom of the stairs.

"Boy, come down here now, I want a word."

Dudley moved quickly into his own room and pushed the door to. He had a vague idea what his Dad was going to say. He had been on the warpath for two days now. It was all a plot on Harry's part to get their house; they weren't going to move, blah, blah, blah. What did Harry need with their house anyway? He had inherited one from Sirius, his godfather, according to Dumbledore when he visited last summer. When Vernon Dursley go an idea in his head there was no changing his mind. He would not believe Harry didn't want their house if he had signed letter from God pointing the fact out. In his opinion Harry was a no good freak. Dudley had come to accept that they would be moving away from Little Whinging when Harry's magical protection ended. He understood that they were going to be living in the magical community. He quite looked forward to it. It would be a fascination to see another world that ran parallel to his own. His Dad would be an absolute nightmare. Nothing would be right with their protection, or the fact that they needed it in the first place.

Harry was coming back upstairs again and Dudley watched him through the crack in the door. These order people were coming in the morning. He was running out of time to speak to Harry, he was afraid that his offer of friendship would be rejected and he couldn't blame Harry if it was. He had to make his feelings known soon.

With a jolt, Dudley woke up on the bed; it was five in the morning according to his clock. He only had a couple of hours to speak to Harry before he and his parents were taken into protective custody by these order people. Listening at Harry's door he could hear snoring, Harry must've finished his packing or just dropped off like he had last night. He went to the bathroom, changed into the outfit his mother had decided he should wear today and went to get himself some breakfast. He decided to make a cup of tea for Harry, that could be a good ice breaker to get this conversation going.

He left the cup outside Harry's door, leaving his own ajar, so he could speak to Harry when he found it. About half an hour later, Harry came out with his finger wrapped in tissue, stepped in the cup and looked at it in disgust. "Some joke of Dudley's, he murmured under his breath."

Damn, that hadn't gone to plan!

As his father drove away from the house, Dudley thought to his himself that maybe he had said just the right thing to Harry. He had made a start, hopefully there could be more to come...

Please Review. First attempt at fanfic. May try later with sequel if liked, but at the rate I work could be a while.


	2. Chapter 2

A New Beginning.

By Jon08

Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

I have always thought that a lot is left out of the books about Dudley. What did he see when the dementors attacked him? Why did he put that cup of tea out for Harry? Did he try to change himself because of it?

Author note. This chapter is written more first person than the first, as if Dudley is narrating, this just seemed to flow more naturally.

Chapter 2

Dudley looked through the back window of the car as Privet Drive receded in the distance, wondering if Harry was going to be alright. Maybe Harry had been right and those dementors had given him a new personality, a better one he hoped. He had no idea what to expect now. Would it be like witness protection on the telly, be given new names and moved to another part of the country or would they be hidden in the wizards world? He rather hoped for the latter, it would be interesting to see Harry's world, of course Mom and Dad would absolutely freak out if that happened.

We were directed onto the M25 and told to park the car at the services. Dad was mumbling under his breath, he didn't think much of this protection so far, if this was where they were being taken.

Hestia and Dedalus got out of the car and beckoned everyone else to get out.

"From here, we go by magical transport; we're outside the no apparition area set by the Ministry."

"What the hell, you mean we just abandon the car and all our belongings here," blustered Dad, Mom just looked a little bewildered and possibly intrigued. "This is an expensive car; I'm not going to abandon it to be stolen."

"Mr. Dursley, we can be tracked by your car, even by your Muggle authorities," said Hestia curtly. "'He who must not be named' can follow your journey using a simple tracking spell. Apparition leaves no trail."

"Vernon, let them do their job, they know what they're doing," Mom pointed out.

"Mr. Dursley if you would open the vehicle so I can see your belongings," asked Dedalus. Dad went to the boot, (trunk to any American readers), and opened it. Several large cases were crammed in, and a box containing Dudley's laptop and games consoles.

Dedalus checked to see how much stuff there was, nodded to himself and pulled out his wand. Dudley felt a moment of panic, thinking of the last time he had seen Harry's wand and the dementor attacking him. Dedalus looked around to see no one was watching and waved his wand silently. Everything was gone.

"What the bloody hell?" squawked Vernon. Looking daggers at Dedalus, "what have you done with our clothes?"

"I've sent them on ahead," replied Dedalus. "We will apparate us all from here; I should warn you this is not a pleasant sensation. Now if we could all grab hands in a circle."

Dudley was between his Mom and Hestia, Dad opposite between Hestia and Dedalus. Suddenly it went all black and Dudley felt like he was being squeezed through a dark pipe, not at all pleasant.

He fell to his knees on the pavement, with the smell of the sea in his nostrils. He felt like he was going to be sick.

"I say are you alright, Dudley? Asked Hestia, "It can affect some people very badly."

"Ugh, that felt unpleasantly like being drunk."i Petunia looked at Dudley with a concerned expression, when had he been drunk?

"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?

"You ask a glass of water!"

"Hmm, very clever, Dudley," remarked Dedalus, "never quite thought of it that way, you could be right!"

"We're in the village of Tinworth, in Cornwall," said Hestia. This is a half magical, half muggle village; a lot of the people you meet may be wizards or witches. Others may be muggles, like yourself, don't be surprised if you see magic being done."

"This is where you'll be living," said Dedalus pointing at an ordinary looking terraced house, just alongside where they had appeared.

You'll be glad to know that it has been given every magical protection that it can be, and is also protected by the Fidelius Charm."

"Fidelius Charm? What's that supposed to mean? Asked Dad.

"It means," said Dedalus "Mr Dursley, that as 'secret keeper' I am the only person who can tell anyone your address. This cannot be tortured out of me it has to be given voluntarily. I can tell you that your new address is 100 Marina Gardens, Tinworth, Cornwall. Now could you repeat that back to me please?"

"What rubbish, that's easy, its... its...What have you bloody done to me?"

It means you are protected. Nobody can find you! 'He who must not be named' could be standing in the front yard of your new home and not find you."

"But, but, how are we supposed to live like that. No car, no money, no job?"

"Not here, if you'll just go inside I'll explain some things to you."

Seated at the kitchen table a little later with a cup of tea that Hestia had to magic up because there was no food or anything in the cupboards. A few things were explained.

"A special bank account has been set up for you; this is for household expenses, daily living etc." He handed them each what looked like a credit card, "this is a special wand that allows you to withdraw money from the bank, or use at the local shops like one of your muggle credit cards. The local taxi firm has your address, if you call a taxi to or from here, it will be protected by the charm. Dudley has been enrolled at the local school and all his records forwarded."

"But, what about work, what about my job?" Dad asked.

"Mr. Dursley, for the moment and the foreseeable future until it is safe for you, you do not need a job. The wizarding community is looking after you and your family. You won't be aware of us, but we'll be there."

Dad just mumbled into his moustache about bloody wizards and 'not need to work indeed'.

"Mrs. Dursley would you like to come with me? I can show you the local shops, where you can purchase food and anything else you may need," Hestia asked Mum.

Mum looked at Dad and I, "Vernon, Dudley, I'll see you later!" she left with Hestia and walked calmly to the front door. "Please excuse Vernon; he's always been very prejudiced against anything not normal. I've been prejudiced against the magical community myself for years, because it took my sister from me. The door slammed behind them.

I politely asked Dedalus where my room was, and made my way upstairs to the room he had indicated.

The next morning I woke up, feeling slightly disorientated, this wasn't my room, either at home or school, 'what was I doing here?'

Then it all came back to me, I was in a new home, a new town, going to a new school and probably never going to go back to Little Whinging again. After looking outside to get a vague idea of what the day was like I went downstairs to get some breakfast. Mum was cooking Dad his usual fried breakfast, I looked for cereal, but Mum had only bought the high calorie sugary stuff I used to eat, so I made myself some toast and sat down.

"Surely my little Duddykins wants more of a breakfast than that? He can't be a proper healthy boy on just toast."

"Bloody hell Mum, I haven't been a healthy boy for years, I've eaten too much crap, can't you remember how it used to be. I nearly got too big for uniforms at Smeltings. And don't call me Duddykins, I'm not bloody five anymore." With that I got up to leave.

"Dudley, apologise to your mother!" dad said, looking sternly at me.

"I'm going for a run, I'll see you later," I said ignoring him, with that I went out the front door, after making sure I'd got the key.

I wasn't really up to taking a full run today, although I'd been getting healthier I was still not as fit as I should be for a boy of my age, anyway if I had gone for a run, I'd have got lost. I had no idea where anything was in this new town. I jogged around the streets, trying to get some idea of the layout of this new town, after all I couldn't ask for help getting home if I got lost. I couldn't tell anyone the bloody address.

I'd been walking round in circles for a couple of hours when I came across the local shop for probably the second or third time. I walked in, thinking I'd get a drink, or something, it was hot, and then it hit me. No money! I checked my wallet and found the credit card / wand thingy that Dedalus had given me last night. I asked the chap behind the counter, where the nearest ATM machine was and following his directions, made my way there, being careful to keep track of where I was, so I could get back.

There was someone already using the machine when I arrived so I hung back waiting for them to finish. The beep, beep of the keys made me realise, PIN number. I didn't know the number to withdraw money from the machine. How was I going to get cash? The gentleman in front finished his business and walked away, I had to try anyway.

Placing the card in the machine, I thought I would give two tries to find the number and then cancel as the machine would keep the card after the third wrong attempt. Putting the card in I waited for the usual screen to come up asking for my number, but it didn't come, the machine just bleeped and the display came up, how much would I like to withdraw. Bloody hell, this magic was clever. I withdrew £20, thinking that I may need more later, if I went exploring more. I traced my steps back to the shop and bought a bottle of water, the only thing they had to drink that wasn't pure sugar.

As I left the shop, I walked into a boy about my own age who was just coming in, "sorry, I didn't see you."

"That's quite alright, I wasn't paying much attention myself," said the boy sounding a bit like some of the boys at Smeltings, a bit of a public school boy accent. "I'm Justinii, just moved into the area!"

"Hi, I'm Dudley, the same here." I replied, "Do you know much about the area, we only got here last night. I've been walking the streets just trying to find my way around, build up a picture of the place in my mind."

"Not that much, although I have been here longer than that. A couple of streets in that direction, you'll find the beach," he indicated pointing to the right. "Usual sort of seaside touristy shops, prices that would break the bank." If you want shops that locals use, they're off that way," he said indicating in front of him, through the shop. There's a library, small leisure centre with sort of a gym and normal chainstores, though a bit more pricey than a non resort town."

"Thanks, maybe I'll see you around again."

That afternoon, I decided to find the library that this Justin had mentioned and set out in the direction that he had indicated, would I be able to find any books about the wizarding world there, maybe about Hogwarts, Harry's school? Would I be able to use this 'wand' I had been given as a library ticket? This was supposed to be a muggle / magical town, so what better place than the library to check how mixed it was? How easy it was to find information about the different halves.

The library wasn't much, not that much more than a village library, just looked like a large house. There probably wouldn't be any magical books in here, probably not even any of the latest books, not that I'd read anything that much lately, not even my school books to tell the truth, maybe why I was such a lousy student. I could see if they had any books that would help me catch up on the work for my A-levels. Without those I wouldn't get to University, another step to getting out from under Mom and Dad's thumb.

If I managed to get into a University, somewhere miles from my parent's there would be no prejudice to stop me from continuing to make amends with Harry; to try to become the cousin's we should have been. I had said my piece, was it only yesterday. Maybe that dementor had given me a personality transplant, even if that wasn't its intention. I wasn't going to be that bully any more, I had been given a second chance by the one person who had more reason than any to hate me. Harry.

This wand thingy wasn't going to be any help to me as a library ticket, even if it did work that way. It was probably just a credit card anyhow. Putting the card back into my wallet, I turned towards the front door, there was an odd flickering in the corner of my eye, I turned back into the library. Wasn't there a wall there before?

The library was bigger than I thought; there was a whole area I'd missed!

As I walked to the new section, I put the wallet back into my pocket. Wait. Where had it gone? Was I going mad, seeing things that weren't there? I got the wallet out of my pocket, again, and the new section was back, this was cool!

Maybe this wand-card was more than just a credit card after all. Holding my wallet in my hand I walked into the new section.

Charms. Transfiguration. Defence Against the Dark Arts. History. Divination. Astrology. Magical Plants & Animals. Arithmancy, blimey even Harry had to suffer mathematics.

I picked a huge book off the shelves, 'A Wizarding History of Britain and Europe' and went to one of the reading desks, there was no way I could carry this book home, I'd need a suitcase.

'British wizarding history can be first seen with arrival of Merlin in the early 4th century, at this time there was no Statute of Secrecy forbidding using magic in the presence of muggles, so even their history has some mention of him...' Merlin? He was real? This could be interesting!

"Excuse me sir, the library will be closing in five minutes," I looked up and the librarian was standing at the entrance to the hidden section. "Will you be wanting to take that book with you?"

Take it with me? I'd be knackered by the time I got home.

"Thank you, but I don't think I could carry it all that way, it's a bit too bloody big."

"No problem sir, do you have your ticket and your wand?"

"Just this sir," I answered showing him the credit card wand that Dedalus had given me.

"Ah, I see, muggle relative of a muggle born witch or wizard, no problem, if you would bring it and the book to the desk please."

This had certainly got my interest, I picked up the book carrying it in both hands and staggered to the desk.

I handed the ticket to the librarian and he took a feather out of a drawer and wrote in a book on the desk, the title, the date, "Your ticket please sir?" Then he wrote my name, and handed me the feather. "If you could just sign here please, Mr Dursley!"

I signed my name where he indicated, and he pulled out his wand and tapped the book with it, muttering something under his breath.

He then placed the ticket on top of the book, "now Mr. Dursley, put the book and the ticket into your wallet please." I looked at him as if to say are you mad? "Trust me, this is quite a simple spell, you should have no trouble getting the book home!"

I picked up the book and ticket and moved it towards my wallet in the other hand, both book and card went in as if they were the same size, my wallet felt no heavier than normal. I looked at the librarian. "What about getting it out? Bringing it back?"

"The book will return to normal size when you take it out of your wallet. In the presence of your wand, just place it back into the wallet, the same way to bring it back. Enjoy your reading, and I'll see you soon."

"Thank you," I said and left the library. Magic was brilliant. I would have to keep the book hidden in the house, Dad would probably burn it, if he saw it, I wasn't too sure about Mum though, and she had seemed quite friendly with Hestia last night.

I couldn't wait to get home and read this book, and boy was that a change for me as well. Imagine me actually wanting to read a book.

Please review. Thank you to those people who have read and reviewed my story already, your appreciation is noted. I will try to update as fast as I can, but the muses, strike where they like.

i The passage about being drunk is not mine, but comes from Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Ever since I read JK Rowling's description of apparition, this particular passage sprang to mind every time the sensation is described. Just had to put it in there!

ii There is no mention of Justin in book 7; I am assuming he and his family went into hiding. It is hoped that this meeting will be of use to Dudley.


	3. Chapter 3

A New Beginning.

By Jon08

Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

I have always thought that a lot is left out of the books about Dudley. What did he see when the dementors attacked him? Why did he put that cup of tea out for Harry? Did he try to change himself because of it?

Chapter 3

For the next two days, I hardly left the house, I was too busy reading this book. Who would have thought it, dragons, goblins, unicorns, all these things were real and living in close proximity to our world and we never knew. This was better than one of those action games I used to spend all my time playing, or those shoot-em-up films. I couldn't remember that much history from school to know if any dates of conflicts in their world matched with ours. School history lessons had been full of boring rubbish about farming and factories; this was a lot more interesting. But two days of just reading, and a running for a couple of hours, were getting to me, I needed to get outside and think.

Dad was slouched in an armchair, he'd been in the same chair watching TV since we arrived. He hadn't left the house, back in Little Whinging, he would have a least gone out to fetch a paper, even if he did use the car to go a couple of streets. Now he just sat there, drinking the endless cups of tea and flicking through the television channels endlessly. Mum was in the kitchen bringing him the latest in an almost continuous flow of teacups that seemed as important as his breath.

I called to them both that I was going out and didn't know how long I was going to be. I didn't bother to wait for an answer, Dad probably wouldn't have noticed World War III, unless it disrupted his flow of tea, and Mum would probably have warned her precious Duddikins to be careful. When would she realise I'd grown out of that name years ago? Probably when I had grandchildren of my own, then again maybe not.

I walked towards the beach, I hadn't really seen that side of the town yet, the runs I had taken had been through the streets near to the house. I hadn't felt further need to explore since the first day, I wasn't really exploring now, just following my feet, thinking about what I had read in the past couple of days. The magical world had its own official secrets act in action in the Statute of Secrecy, made in 1692. They were so ahead of our world at that time but in cutting themselves off and going into hiding they'd lost touch with the world. I could see that myself from the way that Professor Dumbledore had been dressed when he had arrived to pick up Harry hast year, robes. Honestly, nobody had dressed like that for hundreds of years.

I wondered if there was anything magical around this area, this wand helped me to see that hidden section of the library was there more to see than just that in this town? I stepped into a small newsagent that seemed to sell everything from newspapers to tacky souvenirs and sticks of seaside rock. I grabbed a bottle of water and pulled my wallet out to go and pay for it. What? Did the picture on that newspaper just move? I took my hand from my wallet and, and the paper looked normal, just seemed to be one of those foreign language papers that some shops stocked. I put my hand back in my wallet and it looked like a British paper, but with photo's that moved. 'The Daily Prophet' even sounded like a wizard paper, I picked it up and went to the counter.

"That'll be 3 Sickles and 5 Knuts, please, said the shopkeeper.

I looked at him, slightly bemused, then realised, he must think I was a wizard as I was buying the daily prophet; I got a five pound note from my wallet and passed it over the counter.

He raised his eyebrows and handed me my change.

"Thank you," I walked out of the shop, the paper under my arm. I found a shelter with a bench in it and sat down to read the Paper.

'It was now compulsory for all wizards to have their blood status confirmed. It had also been shown that muggle born witches and wizards had stolen the magic of a pure blood wizard.' Not really and news as such, these were just those sort of things that you would find in a Sunday paper, rubbish just to fill the pages and bulk the price up. How much had I paid for this anyway? How much was 12 Knuts? I checked how much I had in my wallet, trying to work out what I'd spent in the last couple of days. I'd probably spent about £1 today on my water and the paper. What was a Knut worth anyway?

"Anything of any interest in the paper?" asked a familiar voice. I looked up from my thoughts; it was that boy I'd walked into the other day. Justin was it?

"Not really, you want it?" I said, handing it in his direction, not really thinking about the 'foreign language' that the paper had appeared to be to me earlier. I didn't give it much thought to the fact that he might not be able to read it.

"What utter rubbish," he muttered under his breath, "stolen magic indeed. Who did they pay to write this? Hmm, Rita Skeeter, might know."

"You're a wizard?"

"Well, aren't you? I saw you reading the Daily Prophet and assumed you were as well. I thought the paper was enchanted so Muggles couldn't read it." He looked at me suspiciously, a slight panic in his eyes. "Oh shit, I've been caught out by a snatcher," he looked ready to run.

"What's a snatcher?"

"What's a snatcher? If you don't mind me saying so, you seem remarkably uninformed excuse for a wizard. Don't you know anything?"

"Not really. Just what I learned from the witch and wizard who brought us here a couple of days ago, and what Dumbledore told us when he picked up my cousin, Harry last summer. I have been reading a bit though and got some information from a squib neighbour of ours before we left."

"Harry? Do you mean Harry Potter?"

"Why? What if I do?"

"I was in the same year as him. Different house though, he was Gryffindor, I was Hufflepuff, but we did have some classes together."

"Oh! Right! Then yes I do mean Harry Potter, I'm Dudley Dursley, his cousin."

"Blimey! That's brilliant, I didn't speak that much to him. But you must have spoken to him all the time when he was at home."

"Not really, my favourite pastime until last summer was 'Harry hunting', me and my friends used to spend all of our time beating him up. That all changed though when he saved my life a couple of years ago."

"What did he do?"

"Used a spell to get rid of a dementor that was attacking me. He got in loads of trouble for it apparently. 'Using magic in the presence of a muggle,' 'under age magic,' if I remember right, although he did get let off."

"I remember that, there were a lot of kids who didn't believe him that year, the daily prophet was calling him the boy who lied, saying it was all to try and draw attention to himself. Get publicity. They called him an attention seeker. I believed it a bit myself before I saw the excuse for a teacher that the Ministry of Magic had foisted upon us."

"I remember Mrs. Figg saying something about that, what did she say the name was? Um, something?"

"Umbridge, a bigger ministerial sycophant you couldn't have met. Thought that Fudge was Christ, Merlin, and the Buddha all rolled into one. Dumbledore by default was a dangerous rabble rouser who should be locked up. She tried on her first day to say that it was all in the name of improving educational standards. Utter rubbish. Cornelius Fudge, our then Minister for Magic was one of these 'in his office for the good of the job types', never did anything unless it made him look better."

"Typical Politician, then. Never seen one of the do what they said they would!"

Justin began to fold the paper back up, in order to return it to me, then looked at it in a puzzled way, then back at me again. "Hang on, if you're a muggle, how can you read the daily prophet? It's got muggle protection charms on it and all sorts."

"This!" I said, holding up the 'wand' that Dedalus had given me the first day. "Dunno how it works, but it's been pretty cool so far, withdrew money from the ATM without a number. Showed me a whole hidden section of the local library and let me carry a book, that I'd have needed a shopping trolley to move, home in my wallet."

"Crikey, can I have a look, that sounds like pretty high level magic?"

I handed the card to him and looking around, he removed a wand from his pocket and waved it over the card, muttering something under his breath. The card flickered several times, I couldn't see properly, but I did notice that Justin seemed impressed.

"From what Harry taught me that card has several layers of enchantment on it. Protection, illusion, visionary and several I couldn't hope to understand."

"Protection, illusion, I understand, what do you mean by visionary?"

"That's what enabled you to read the Daily Prophet, and see that hidden portion of the library, some things are hidden by illusions and muggle repelling charms. My parents are muggles and they can't read the Daily Prophet, they think it's some foreign paper, Russian, I think, my dad did mention 'all those funny letters once!'"

"Sounds good, but why give me that ability? I appreciate it, I've been desperate to understand more about Magic since Harry saved my life, but my Dad would absolutely freak if he so much as saw an owl. He's been terrified of them since Harry's first year."

"Why? Owls aren't that scary are they?"

"No, not really, but you have to look at it from his point of view, mine as well at the time. I collected the post, when the first letter arrived for Harry. Mom and Dad looked at it, as if it were going to bite them. They burnt it in front of Harry and I. Over the next few days, more and more Hogwarts letters arrived for Harry, my Dad even boarded up the letter box. Mom kept finding them all over the place, there was even letters in eggs, straight from the shop. Then on a Sunday, Dad was in a particularly good mood as in his words 'no post on Sunday,' letters poured in down the chimney, broke all the boards he'd put over the letter box. He went ballistic. Within half an hour we were all in the car, just driving. Hours later he found some small backstreet hotel, and we went to book in for the night. There was a letter for Harry there already. We left and went to some small shack on a coastal island, nothing else there. Just after midnight, there's this boom, boom, knock on the door and it falls in. A huge bloke, at least 9 foot tall walks in apologises and puts the door back up. He then tells Harry he's a wizard and hands him a birthday cake, which I promptly acquired and began to eat, I was a fat greedy slob at this point. All I'd eaten all day was a packet of crisps. Dad protests that Harry will not be going this 'crackpot school where some idiot,' or something along those lines, 'could teach him magic tricks.' Mum whimpers and said they'd both decided when Harry was left on their doorstep after his Mum got blown up, that he wasn't going to go there. She'd always told Harry and I that they'd died in a car crash and that was where Harry had got his scar. This giant gets very angry, says that Dumbledore is no crackpot and Hogwarts is the best school for Harry to learn magic. He then must have noticed me scoffing the cake, because I felt a burning pain in my bum and I'd grown a bloody pig's tail."

"Oh, blimey, that sounds funny, not for you I mean, getting a pigs tail and all, but I can just see Hagrid, that's the giant bloke acting to someone insulting Dumbledore like that."

"Oh it doesn't finish there, Hagrid handed Harry his letter, and they both left taking the only boat with them. We had to wait till the next day at low tide to get back to the mainland, the walk nearly killed us. We had to take refuge on rock's halfway back, when the tide came in."

"Crumbs."

"Yeah, well you can see why Dad is afraid of owls, when we got home finally, about four o'clock in the morning, Harry was already there, and he'd been into London and got all his school books and an owl. He'd also got a train ticket to platform 9¾. We dropped Harry of at the station, Dad telling him best of luck finding his platform and I was taken to a private hospital to have the bloody tail removed before I started school. I've still got the scar."

"I can see that he might gave a problem with owls then,

"Me as well at the time. Mum and Dad were petrified of anyone learning that Harry was a wizard and told the neighbours that he was going to 'St Brutus' School for Criminal Boys', or something like that. The only neighbour that seemed to want to have anything to do with Harry after that was Mrs. Figg, a rather batty old lady, who kept a load of cats, but she didn't try to be openly friendly with him, just kept an eye on him, even hiding him a couple of times from me and my gang when we were looking to duff him up. I since found out why, she's a squib, she was watching Harry for Dumbledore. Although we didn't find that out for years until after I'd been attacked by that dementor. I still have bloody nightmares about that."

"I'm not surprised, it was bad enough when the invaded the quidditch pitch in the third year, they weren't going after us, but their very presence was chilling. They nearly caused Harry's death, made him fall of his broom. Dumbledore saved his life stopping him hitting the ground. I heard that Dumbledore was really angry with the minister for magic."

"Harry never told me he'd been attacked by dementors."

"You should be glad he was, that was the reason he asked Professor Lupin to teach him how to deal with dementors. He was really good at that spell, managed to get rid of several dementors at the end of the year. It's not usually taught until the second year of your N.E.W.T.s."

"What has some bloody frog gotta do with dementors?"

"Eh! Oh, N.E.W.T.s are the wizarding equivalent of A levels. Nasty Exhausting Wizarding Tests. Don't suppose I'll finish mine now. I'll end up with A levels in History, Maths, Chemistry, Physics and Biology."

"Bloody hell, you must be clever, I'm having trouble keeping up with just three."

"That's nothing, there was one girl at school who would have been taking twelve N.E.W.T.s, but unfortunately she was muggle born, so she's probably gone into hiding somewhere. Hermione Granger, a friend of your cousins, she was in Gryffindor like him, although she could easily have been a Ravenclaw."

"Now you've lost me again. What's Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin got to do with how many exams you're doing? Aren't they the school houses or something?"

"Yeah, they are, but who and what you are decides your house. Those who are brave, go to into Gryffindor. Clever people go into Ravenclaw, those who tend to be loyal, get into Hufflepuff, and Slytherins tend to be sneakier. Some people think Slytherins are evil, but I don't think that's right. They tend to go with the choice that is best for them, be more self-motivated."

"Wonder which house I'd've been in, I'm not brave, intelligent, particularly loyal, I'd probably have been in Slytherin."

"You might have problems if you were, most Slytherins are pure or half blood and extremely prejudiced against muggleborns."

"Just typical of me, I don't bloody fit anywhere!"

"I wouldn't worry, it was similar with me, I wasn't sneaky or ambitious, particularly clever, I'm not brave, didn't think I was loyal to anything, but eventually it was my loyalty to family and friends that got me into Hufflepuff. I was happy in Hufflepuff; I made good friends and got the support I needed."

"err, the only thing I was loyal to, or committed to more like, I'm ashamed to say was making Harry's life as miserable as possible. Mum and Dad called him a freak, practically starved him and I was openly encouraged to be the same. If the authorities ever found out about it, we'd all have been up on charges of child abuse. I'm sure Mum and Dad were convinced they could beat his 'freakiness' out of him, course they couldn't! It was my bullying of Harry that the dementors showed me, I realised I was a horrible person. A bully. Prejudiced. I saw myself having no real friends; they just stuck with me to avoid being bullied by me. It made me want to change. I hope I have."

"You seem a decent enough chap to me, a little bit uninformed, but trying to better yourself. Of course it was different for me, my parents were proud of the fact I was a wizard, they couldn't tell that to our muggle neighbours, I was supposed to be going to Eton. We had a visit from Professor McGonagall who informed them I was a wizard and I'd got a place in Hogwarts. They were ever so pleased, even boasted to my cousins that I'd been offered a place at an exclusive boarding school that was by invitation only."

Maybe if my parents had had that attitude, Harry and I could have been proper cousins, instead of each other's worst nightmare, for a long time I was afraid of magic, it was Harry saving my life that made me realise it could be used positively instead of just negatively. It gave me the urge to better myself."

"Seems to be working! Look you and I are in similar situations here, both been moved to a new school in our last year, got to do a lot of work to catch up, me more than you, but I'd like to be friends. We can help and support each other and I can tell you more about the magical world."

"I'd like that, I never had a friend who wanted to be with me as me. As I said they just wanted to stay on the bully's good side."

"How about I come to meet you tomorrow, I'll show you round the town and we can talk about school, both types of school, magic and muggle."

"That would be great I live at... at..., oh damn, it's a secret I can't tell you where I live. I'll meet you at that shop at 1 tomorrow, how does that sound?"

"Great! See you there."

"Thanks. See you tomorrow." I got up and started walking back to the house, pleased in the knowledge that I'd found a new friend.

Authors Note: Hope you liked this chapter, was a bit heavy on conversation, but it needed to be said.

Please review. Thank you to those people who have read and reviewed my story already, your appreciation is noted. I will try to update as fast as I can, but the muses, strike where they like.


	4. Chapter 4

A New Beginning.

By Jon08

Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

I have always thought that a lot is left out of the books about Dudley. What did he see when the dementors attacked him? Why did he put that cup of tea out for Harry? Did he try to change himself because of it?

Author note: I've made a slight revision to Chapter 3, wanted to discuss the exchange rate for muggle / wizard money, so looked on the web and realised the amount I'd charged in Knuts was far too low. I was thinking of the muggle gold standard.

Chapter 4.

The next morning I took that book back to the library, it had been a good read, but I wanted to know more about Harry's school. "Do you have anything about Hogwarts? I want to learn more about my cousin's school."

"Oh, and who might your cousin be? It's a little unusual for cousins to be put into hiding. It's usually just immediate family."

"It's er, Harry... Harry Potter!"

"You're Harry's cousin. Must've been fascinating growing up with the 'Boy Who Lived?'"

"Didn't know anything about magic till he got his Hogwarts letter. Or about that Lord..."

"Don't say his name, it's been cursed. If you say his name out loud, it sends up a magical flare to inform his followers of your location."

"Oh! What do you call him then? You must talk about him?"

"'He Who Must Not be Named' or 'You Know Who', if you hear anyone mention the 'Dark Lord', try not to react; it'll be one of his followers."

"What will they be doing here? I thought we were safe here?"

"This is a mixed town, muggle and wizard, they'll be looking for underage muggleborn wizards, 'mud-bloods' they call them, meaning dirty blood. They won't be interested in you; you show no obvious signs of magic. That card is spelled to be undetectable. You are just an ordinary muggle to them. Any other place in Britain and you could be murdered just for their amusement, but here there are too many wizards around for them to try anything. That's why you are here."

"Right thanks."

He went to the hidden section and brought out a book, 'Hogwarts, A History', if you read this it will tell you a lot about the school, up to about fifty years ago."

"Thanks see you soon."

After doing myself some lunch over Mum's protest that I should be eating more to be a healthy boy, I told her I was going out to meet someone I'd met the other day.

"He's not some freak is he?" muttered Dad, "I mean we were told this was a mixed town, I don't want you associating with that sort. It's bad enough we have to bloody live near them, I don't want them corrupting you."

"I don't think so? He mentioned going to Eton," I replied, glad that Justin had mentioned that fact to me yesterday. It wasn't exactly a lie; he had said he was going to go there before he got his letter.

"Ah, very good, Dudders, keeping in with the right sort of people. That's what I like to hear. Don't go near any of those freaks, they're a menace to decent society."

"No Dad, I won't, and please don't call me Dudders, it's almost as bad as Duddykins, my name is Dudley, I grew out of those names before I started school." With that I left the house to go and meet Justin, I wanted to find out about the wizarding part of this town. I'd noticed a couple of things on my own, but without keeping my hands in my pockets all the time, I'd never notice anything.

I was a bit late getting to the shop; the argument with Dad had held me up a bit. When I got there, Justin was sitting on a bench outside reading the Daily Prophet.

"Anything of any interest I asked as I approached."

"Not really, just some scurrilous rubbish about Dumbledore by that Skeeter woman. She's been muckraking apparently and published some book about him. It's bound to be a load of rot, that woman wouldn't know the truth if it bit her."

"You mentioned her yesterday, what's wrong with her?"

"Let's just say that if she wrote for a muggle paper, it would be the type of headlines like, 'an alien ate my hamster' or similar garbage. She's loves to find out secrets about people and make the worst of them. In our fourth year, she found out that Hagrid, is half giant, not really that much of a secret if you see him, but she had it plastered all over the front page as if he were some sort of paedophile. Nicer bloke you couldn't hope to meet, course, bit monster obsessed, but we've all got our hobbies."

"What do you mean monster obsessed?"

"Well, he once tried to keep a dragon for a pet, I heard, and he got locked up in Azkaban in our second year, because the Ministry thought he was letting the monster out of the Chamber of Secrets."

"Hang on, isn't that your wizard prison, if he'd been in prison, doesn't that make him a bad guy?"

"Not really, Fudge, the then Minister had to appear to be doing something, so as Hagrid had been accused years earlier when he was a student at Hogwarts of letting the monster out, Fudge had him imprisoned to appear pro-active. Of course, it stopped nothing, the last time it happened, Hagrid had been framed by 'He Who Must Not Be Named.' He was at school at the same time and letting the basilisk out of the chamber, only it killed a student, and the school was possibly going to close. So he framed Hagrid, who was lucky not to go to Azkaban then, he was expelled from school and his wand broken. Dumbledore got him a job at the school as assistant to the gamekeeper. Best thing he could have done for him, Hagrid loves looking after magical creatures."

"Hang on, you mean there are magical creatures and the school, isn't that dangerous? I mean from what I've read there are some seriously dangerous animals in your world!"

"And some not so dangerous ones, that need hiding from muggles, like unicorns, centaurs, bowtruckles, kneazles although there are a lot of them in the muggle world undetected."

"I've heard of unicorns and centaurs and you're probably right, they'd probably end up in a zoo or be the target of poachers. But what's a bowtruckle, and why would kneazles whatever they are be in the muggle world? Wouldn't they be in danger too?"

"Bowtruckles are tree guardians, especially in trees that are used to make wands, kneazles look like cats, they're more intelligent than muggle cats though."

"I think I might have met one then, Mrs. Figg had cats and they seemed a bit more than normal cats, or a bit cleverer than the average run of the mill moggy."

"Possible! Who's Mrs. Figg when she's at home?"

"She's that squib I mentioned, the one that told me a bit about Harry's schooling and his adventures. I always thought that one cat of hers in particular was keeping an eye on me and Harry. Mr. Tibbles, I think she called it. Looked ready to attack me the first few times I went to her house, to learn about Harry. Nice ca... er kneazel when I got to know him a little better."

"Definitely sound right, you want to read this?" he asked waving the paper in my direction. "If not I'll bin it."

"No thanks, if there's nothing of any worth in it. If you don't mind, I'd like to see more of the wizarding side of this town. I heard it's mixed and I've discovered a couple of things on my own, but I can't walk about the time with my wallet in my hand, asking to be mugged that!"

"Yeah, you wouldn't like to walk around with your hands in your pockets either. Never a good look that." He looked at the sky which threatened to rain any minute." How about I take you to The Happy Hippogriff, that's a wizard pub, you may meet some other wizards there too?"

"Aren't we underage, don't you have to be 18 to buy drinks in a pub?"

"Muggle pubs, yeah, but for wizard pubs it's 17, but that's only alcoholic drinks. I was only thinking of getting somewhere inside for when that rain comes, and I'll introduce you to a wizarding drink. It's not alcoholic; I think you'll like it."

"Ok. Let's go."

I followed Justin to a side street, I'd walked past at least twice without really noticing, it looked like a back alley between two shops, the sort of place that housed the dustbins for the shops on either side. There was what looked like a gate to the back yards at the end of the alley; I'd never have given it a second glance if I'd been on my own. Justin pushed the gate open and ushered me inside. It looked like an old fashioned pub, wooden beams across the ceiling, and several people in wizard robes smoking at tables and reading the paper, their drinks on the tables in front of them.

Justin walked up to the bar, and asked, "two butterbeers, please." He walked back to me with what looked like a couple of beer bottles in his hand, motioning to a table off to the side."

"What do you think?"

"I've been in a couple of pubs with Mum and Dad for a meal, but they didn't look like this." I replied looking around, I could swear that those pictures on the wall were moving like the ones on the paper. Then it seemed that one chap walked off out of his picture leaving an empty chair behind him. I looked askance at Justin, "is that normal, for people to walk out of their pictures?"

"Yeah, they'll visit other pictures of themselves or go to another picture to socialise with whoever's there. The portraits at Hogwarts were a bit like closed circuit television, that they have in some shops to stop shoplifting. You couldn't go anywhere without being watched. It was useful when we were first years, they'd direct us if we got lost. We had to be careful in the fifth year though!"

"Why the fifth year?"

"That was the year that Umbridge was teaching and spying for the Ministry, and Dumbledore's Army."

"Hang on you had an army at the school?"

"Not really. Fudge, the Minister for Magic was convinced that Dumbledore was trying to take over the ministry, Umbridge was the useless teacher foisted on the school by him to spy out any so called 'subversive activity'. Ridiculous, really Dumbledore has turned down the job as minister at least twice. Anyway, Umbridge was about much use as a chocolate teapot. With her teaching us, we'd have been easy prey for You Know Who's followers. The ministry was totally against us finding out he'd returned. Dumbledore and Harry were their main targets; the Prophet was all about 'The Boy Who Lied,' and 'Dumbledore Senile'. It was all fear, they didn't want to believe he'd returned, but a lot of the school believed Harry and Dumbledore. You should have seen the look on Harry's face when he came from the maze of the Triwizard tournament, Cedric Diggory dead in his arms. You would have believed them."

"I heard a bit about that from Mrs. Figg, she told me he'd been killed, Harry had nightmares about it during that summer. Just before the dementors attacked us that summer I was tormenting him about it. He used to call out 'don't kill Cedric', in the middle of the night and I tormented him about his boyfriend. I still can't believe he saved me, I would have run. That was Harry though, always did the right thing. I occasionally have nightmares still about that day." I shivered.

"I bet, anyway Dumbledore's Army, the Defence Association, or the DA were all names for the secret classes that were being taught by Harry. He was a very good teacher. Had a way of teaching that kids his age could relate to. Some of the Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers we had were useless; Lockhart was a complete moron, and a fraud to boot."

"Fraud, how?"

"He'd written several bestselling books about his defeats of dark creatures, to hear him talk he was John McClane from the 'Die Hard' films. I was quite impressed with him at first, bit of a hero complex. As the year progressed though I got more and more disillusioned with him. His classes were a joke, all we did was read the books and hear him going on about how he had won the witch weekly most charming smile award, God knows how many times. Lupin wasn't bad, our third year teacher, learnt quite a bit from him. Moody in the fourth year was a bit scary, concentrated on curses and how to resist and repel them. Not that it was the real Moody, after all that."

"Hang on, not the real Moody; what do you mean, somebody else took his name and taught in his place."

"Not just his name, an escaped Death Eater called Barty Crouch Jnr, an escapee from Azkaban. He'd captured the real Moody and was using 'Polyjuice Potion' to make himself look and sound exactly like the real Moody. The real Moody spent most of the year locked in his own trunk."

"Poor bloke, was he ok afterwards?"

"Hard to tell, he's always been a bit paranoid apparently, that's probably why he was so good at his job. At the end of year feast, he looked afraid of his own shadow. I hope he recovered."

"I hope so too. Must give him nightmares though, being locked in a trunk for months. You want another one of these butterbeers was it? I'll get them this time."

"Ok. Thanks."

I walked up to the bar and asked for two butterbeers, the barman got them from under the counter and asked for 6 Sickles. I handed him the last five pound note from my wallet, the look he gave me would have curdled water, never mind milk.

"Hang on," I said and crossed to Justin. "A problem, I'm a bit embarrassed, I don't think they take muggle money here, judging by the look on the barman's face. I think he's a little suspicious of me."

"Bloody hell, never thought of that, sorry." He went to the bar to pay for our drinks. "Sorry, Alan, muggle relative, never thought about it."

"That's alright Mr. Finch-Fletchley but you should get him to the bank and change some money for him, save him some embarrassment later."

"I will, Monday, the bank'll be closed now." He came back to the table with our drinks. "Sorry Dudley, never thought about that, a lot of places take both, but those places that are hidden, only take wizard money. I'll take you to the bank on Monday and you can get some wizard money as well."

"Thanks. That'll be great. How much is what in wizard money anyway? The newsagent asked me the other day for 3 Sickles, 5 Knuts; I have no idea how much that is worth? I think it was about 1 pound, but I could be wrong."

Justin counted under his breath for a couple of seconds and said, "about right, A gold Galleon is worth five pounds, 17 Sickles to a pound, that makes them about 29pence, and 29 knuts to a Sickle, so they're worth about a penny. Course it's not exact, because that means there's 493 Knuts to a Galleon, but not a bad guide."

"Right. Thanks," I opened my wallet and handed him 2 pound coins. "I said this round was on me so there you are."

"You don't need to do that you know. You could easily sort it out the next time we meet or whatever."

"I don't like to owe money, I reckon I must have robbed a few kids of their lunch money in my past, I'm not proud of it, but at least I pay my way now."

"I don't think I'd have liked the old you. You seem so pleasant now, but you keep on bringing up things you've done in the past. If I'd met you then I'd probably have run a mile."

"If I let you, if I'd known you were a wizard I'd have tried to give you a black eye at least, I always did Harry. If I'd known someone like me, I would run. Like all bully's I was basically a coward, it wasn't until I learnt that Harry couldn't do magic out of school that I started picking on him. Can we change the subject please? I'm not proud of the old me. What sort of stuff did Harry teach you? I really have no idea what magic can do, apart from the fairy tales."

Justin went on to tell me of several spells and counter-spells that Harry taught them, 'impedimenta', 'stupefy', 'locomotor mortis', 'protego'. They all sounded ever so useful, but something was bothering me.

"Hang on are all magic spells in a foreign language, sounds like Latin. Do you need to learn another language too?"

"Not really, most spells are very old, so of course they are in Latin, and some are probably in Ancient Greek too. Although there is one particularly unpleasant spell I've heard of that's in English."

"Unpleasant how? None of those jinxes you told me about sound pleasant, tripping, stunning, immobilisation, wouldn't like to have any of them performed on me."

"The spell makes you vomit up slugs, can sometimes last over an hour."

"Yuck, that's disgusting. You didn't use it did you? Because if you use it on me, I'll get my revenge, changed character or not."

Justin looked at me as if I was a wolf that had just spotted a very juicy rabbit, him being the rabbit. "No I've never used it, or seen it used. But I heard about it being used in our second year. The Gryffindor quidditch team was going to practice and partway to the field met the Slytherin off to do the same thing. Both teams had got permission to practice at the same time. Slytherin's team all had new brooms that year, brought for them by the father of their new seeker, Draco Malfoy. A bribe if ever I heard of one, because he wasn't that good a player. Don't get me wrong, he was good and could fly reasonably well, but he was missing a certain something to make him a good seeker. Anyway, back to the story, one of the Gryffindor supporters cursed Malfoy, but unfortunately got it wrong and the spell backfired; he ended vomiting up slugs himself for at least an hour and a half."

"Yuck! That is really gross. Makes me wanna heave myself at the thought."

"Makes two of us. But as I said the spell's in English. Little misleading, but the spell is 'eat slugs'."

"That sounds even worse. Bad enough spewing the bloody things up, but eating them, I'm gonna hurl!"

"Please don't, Alan, the landlord disapproves of that sort of thing even more than he does muggles. I hope you don't mind I kind, I made a comment about you being a muggle born relative and now he thinks we're related?"

"Not really, his mistake. I am a muggleborn relative, just not yours. I stretched the truth a bit myself about you before I came out this afternoon. I told Mum and Dad I was going into town with someone I'd met the other day in town. Dad immediately cropped up about you better not be 'a freak' as this is a mixed town. He doesn't want me associating with the wrong sort as he put it. I told him you'd mentioned Eton. Not my fault he got the wrong idea. You did mention Eton. If I was going to avoid the WRONG sort of people I'd have to leave home, not that I'm going to tell him that. Funny though, Mum hasn't been that vocal about 'freaks' or Harry as she usually is. Was even quite friendly with Hestia Jones, during and after the journey here."

"Maybe she's mellowing. Look though, it's getting late, I need to get back home, Mum's a little over-protective at the moment. We've got plans over the weekend, so how about we meet up Monday sometime and go to the local gym. We can check out the girls there together."

I agreed that this sounded like a plan and gave him my mobile number so he could call me. I was a little surprised he didn't have one of his own until he said they didn't work too well with magic, but he'd call me.

We left the pub together and both headed towards our homes. I was really beginning to have an appreciation and respect for magic, and I hoped that Justin would continue to be a friend. Maybe the first real friend I'd had...

Please review. I am grateful to those who have already done so. Also thank you to those who have put it as a favourite. I hope I will not disappoint you.


	5. Chapter 5

A New Beginning.

By Jon08

Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

I have always thought that a lot is left out of the books about Dudley. What did he see when the dementors attacked him? Why did he put that cup of tea out for Harry? Did he try to change himself because of it?

Chapter 5.

The next morning, Saturday I woke up and checked the date. Oh blimey, it was August 10th, Harry's birthday about two weeks ago, this was first time that it had meant anything to me. I was ashamed to say I didn't even know the exact date of his birthday. I had never got him a present or even a birthday card before, neither had Mum or Dad, but somehow it mattered to me now. I didn't even know where to send a card, or even if wizards sent them. But it still sickened me to think that he was out there, had celebrated his birthday and I'd done nothing about it. It might not have meant anything to Harry that I hadn't got a card from me, but dammit, it meant something to me.

I sat down to continue reading 'A History of Hogwarts', the book I'd got from the library a few days ago, but my heart wasn't in it. The book was interesting, but I couldn't get Harry's birthday out of my head. I wanted to say Happy Birthday to him, even if it was late, but I couldn't. I didn't even know how I could send him a card without an address. He was probably staying with those red headed friends of his, which had called for him before his fourth year. I thought back on that day, what was their name. All I could remember was that everybody who came that day had red hair. Hang on. A couple of days before we received a letter covered in stamps, enough postage to send a letter to the moon. So wizards could send a normal letter, possibly they could receive one as well. Now what was their surname? Try as I might, it wouldn't come to me. It was hopeless. I sat staring at the book in front of me, feeling hopeless. Slowly an idea came to me, something I could possibly do.

I checked the clock, showered and got dressed and left the house heading for the library. When I got to the library, I realised I was early, it had different hours on Saturday and wouldn't open for an hour. I couldn't hang around here for an hour. I got up and began to walk back towards home, funny how quickly this new place had become home. But a home without the one person there who I really wanted to talk to.

On the way back, I saw the newsagent where I'd bought the Daily Prophet a few days ago. I went in to pick up a copy today, it might be easier to read than that book. I got my wallet out and with the wand-card in my hand, went to the shelves where the papers were on sale. The headline read 'Ministry Announces Scrimgeour Successor.' At least it looked as if something had happened even if it wasn't earth shattering news. I took it towards the counter."

"That'll be 2 Sickles 12..." the shopkeeper looked at me few a few seconds, "er 50 pence please."

I handed him the money, "thank you," turning to leave the shop I thought that maybe the newsagent might be able to give me an idea of how to find the address of Harry's friends. " I wonder if you can tell me how I can find someone's address when I don't know their surname? It's a friend of my cousin, who would be going to Hogwarts for his seventh year this year. The friend is red haired, the same as my cousin, and has twin brothers probably a year or two older than him, he might have other siblings, but I don't know about them."

"Hmm! Tricky," he pulled a small 'diary' from his pocket. "What's your cousin's name?"

"Harry Potter"

"Ok, that might make it a little easier." He opened the 'diary', turned it over in his hands and opened it again; it was now the size of a paperback book, he did this again it grown to the size of a hardback novel. He looked at the book for a few minutes, checking things and moving to another page. After about five minutes he smiled. "I may have your answer, the friend is Ron Weasley, and he has twin older brothers, Fred and George, and three other brothers, Percy, Bill and Charlie, and a sister Ginny. I can give you their address, if that will help.

"That sounds as if it could be them. I remember someone called Ron telephoning our house, before fourth year. He was speaking so loudly, you needed to keep the earpiece about a foot away to avoid being deafened."

"Sounds about right, most wizarding families are pretty ignorant of muggle technology. I prefer phones myself to floo talking. You don't get all covered in soot. Of course I have to use the floo to speak to my mother, so old fashioned won't even have a radio in the house."

"What wizards have radios, my friend Justin said he couldn't have a mobile phone because they didn't work near magic, aren't they a similar principle?"

"Similar, I suppose. Wizard radios work by magic instead of electronics, a sonorous charm controls the volume and they use magic instead of radio waves. Eventually, someone will do the same thing to a mobile phone. But as yet they're too sensitive. Get them too near magic and they tend to burst into flames."

"Blimey, I'll watch where I use mine then, don't want to burn my hair off."

"You should have no problems, its only when witches or wizards try to use them, bit like plugging a battery operated toy into the mains. Too much power and they burn." He handed me a piece of paper. Here's the address you wanted, the post office is three streets away in that direction," pointing to his left.

"Thank you for your help." I left the shop and headed off in the direction indicated. At least I could send the card to his friend's house. He might not be there, but if he was I'm sure they would know where he was and could forward it. I searched through the card selection at the post office and found one that said 'Happy Birthday Cousin' on it and just a short verse inside. I checked my pockets, no pen, typical, I picked up a cheap biro as well, could always be of use at school later. I went to the counter, paid for my purchases and bought a stamp for the envelope. I went to a writing desk, located at the back of the store and opened the card.

"Dear Harry,

I apologise for the lateness of this card, I am extremely ashamed to say I don't know the exact date of your birthday. I hope you will read this card and understand the message and feelings behind it. Happy Birthday from your cousin, Dudley, that's right the overweight bully who made your life hell. I apologise for that, I am trying to come to terms with who and what I was and hope you will understand that when you read this.

I have no idea, of a proper address for this so have asked a wizard I've met for the address of your red headed friend, I do hope I've got the right people and this gets to you. If they are not the right people, hopefully they will take it to Hogwarts when the school year begins and you get it then.

Mom, Dad and I are currently living in... Sorry been trying to write the town or anything connected to where we're living down. I can't, Dedalus said that he was 'secret keeper' for our address, something called the Fiddle Us Charm. Maybe he can tell you.

I don't want to lose you, you are the only family I've got besides Mum and Dad, and I was an absolute bastard to you. Please don't write me off, when you've sorted everything out. I want to be your cousin and hopefully your friend.

Dudley.

This covered most of the card, my handwriting wasn't the best; I took the envelope and addressed it. 'Mr Harry Potter, c/o Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, The Burrow, Ottery-St-Catchpole. I put the stamp on the envelope and posted it. I'd made an effort. I hope something would come of it.

I was reading at home later that afternoon, I felt a little better now. I'd made a start, hopefully a good one. I was reading about the new Minister of Magic, Pius Thicknesse, blimey these wizards had some daft names, when I was surprised to hear my mobile phone ringing. It was a private number, who could be calling me? Piers and Malcolm from back in Little Whinging were probably glad to see the back of me, I'm pretty sure they only hung around with me to avoid being victims.

"Hello, Dudley Dursley speaking."

"Dudley hi, it's Justin, look I've been speaking to my parents about meeting you in town the other day and wonder if you'd like to come to my birthday party tomorrow. I'm sorry it's such short notice, but they thought you might like to come. You needn't get me anything, just be there, I'm expecting some friends from school as well. They'll be going back to Hogwarts, but it's not exactly safe for me."

"I'd love to come but how do I get there, I don't know your address."

"I can't tell you either, its protected, the Fidelius Charm," that was the name of that charm I knew I hadn't got it right, hope it gave Harry a laugh if he even read that far in the letter without tearing it up. "Did Dedalus mention the local taxi firm to you? You need to call them and say you would like a taxi from the home of your Dad, giving his first and last name and you wish to go to the home of Justin Finch-Fletchley. Although they can't disclose the address even in writing, those terms will get round the charm."

"Ok, what time and how long do you think the journey will last and cost? I'd hate not to have enough to pay the fare."

"The fare from the promenade at one end of the town to the shopping mall a couple of miles beyond the other is about 7 pounds, and takes about 30 minutes. I don't think it'll be anywhere near that much, seeing as we both use the same local newsagent. Five minutes tops. The party starts at Seven tomorrow, don't know how long it will go on, but not too late, I have to be aware of my Mum. I'm sure you know what I mean?"

"Thanks' I'd love to come, I'll see you about seven tomorrow, thanks for inviting me."

I closed the book and ran down the stairs, "I'm nipping out Mum, Dad; Justin just rang and invited me to his birthday party tomorrow. He says I don't need to get him anything, but I want to at least get a card."

"What was that Dudders?" called Mum from the kitchen. I don't think Dad had even bothered to get out of bed today. Did you say a birthday party?

"Yes Mum, it was Justin, the Eton boy I mentioned yesterday. He doesn't have many friends locally, having just moved here, so he invited me."

"That's nice Duddykins, it's nice to see you settling into the area and making new friends."

"Thanks Mum, but please don't call me Duddykins or Dudders. I've outgrown those names; I'm 17, not 7 anymore."

"Ok Popkin, I'll try."

"Mum, that's just as bad, please call by my proper name."

"Alright Dudley, I'll try my best."

I left the house heading back to the newsagents, to at least get a card, stopping off at the ATM on the way to get a bit more cash out to cover the taxi tomorrow and hopefully some sort of present, I didn't want to go empty handed if I could help it.

I picked up a card that was right for someone my age and went to pay. "Have you any idea, where I can get some kind of small present for a wizard kid about my age?"

"You might think about Chocolate Frogs or Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans."

"Chocolate Frogs, Every Flavour Beans, they sound like fun, where can I get some of them, will I need wizard money, only I haven't managed to change any of mine yet?"

"No, I take both kinds, you've got some kind of wand, right, just hold it and walk into that small alcove beside the fridge, it leads to a wizard part of the shop, just be careful what you touch, some stuff is dangerous. Sweets are on the far left."

I thanked him, got my wallet from my pocket and walked to the back of the shop, there was a small alcove beside the fridge, that without the wand I would have just ignored, as a dead space that had nothing in it. I saw a large room that was being lit by candles that were floating in the air. I decided to look around, it was just too weird."

There were rows and rows of bottles, dragons blood, doxy venom, wormwood, vervain, lacewing flies, beetles eyes, yuck. This was too weird, what on earth did wizards need beetle eyes for and who collected them. I really wouldn't wanta job doing that. I walked to the back left of the room and looked at the sweets there, Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans, Sugar Quills, and Cockroach Clusters. Bloody hell, I hope that didn't have real cockroaches in it.

I picked up a couple of the Chocolate Frogs, a box of the Every Flavour Beans and a Sugar Quill, added up the cost in my head and went back to the front of the shop to pay for my purchases. "Do you have a bag and some wrapping paper, I'm not sure how Mum and Dad will react to me being friends with a wizard, and they're just a bit prejudiced."

He handed me a bag and a couple of sheets of paper.

I picked the design I thought best and paid for everything. "Thanks' again."

As I sat upstairs in my room later that night, all pretence of trying to read abandoned I wondered about the birthday card I'd mailed to Harry. Would he want to be friends with me after everything I'd done to him? If it was me, I don't think I would. Maybe some of these friends of Justin could pass on a message for me, if Harry was back at school, but somehow I didn't think he would be. That Lord Thingy was after him and would probably murder him in his sleep if he did go back to school. I hoped that Harry would be safe from danger, but I really didn't see how. I didn't want to lose him before we'd even got to be friends as real cousins should.

Please review. I am grateful to those who have already done so, especially madeyemarauder who has reviewed every chapter so far and reminded me of an incident I forgot in Prisoner of Azkaban. This might come up later. Please be patient with me, we'll be going to Justin's birthday soon. I'll be as quick as I can with these updates.

Author Note: No mention is made of the date of Justin's birthday, so for the purpose of this fiction I have opted for August the 10th; a Sunday if that's not already obvious.


	6. Chapter 6

A New Beginning.

By Jon08

Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

I have always thought that a lot is left out of the books about Dudley. What did he see when the dementors attacked him? Why did he put that cup of tea out for Harry? Did he try to change himself because of it?

I am grateful to those who have already done so, especially madeyemarauder who has reviewed every chapter so far and reminded me of an incident I forgot in Prisoner of Azkaban. This might come up later.

Chapter 6

I was particularly nervous the next day, I'd be going to the home of my new friend Justin and meeting his parents, it would be interesting to see how they had adapted to having a magical son. It should probably have been the attitude of my parents; I still didn't know the complete story of the split between Mum and Harry's Mum, my Aunt Lily. Why had Mum never mentioned her sister, apart from calling her a freak? I still didn't know what mum's attitude was to all this, she seemed to have mellowed a bit, but was that just an acceptance of it all? She could do nothing about it sort of thing, could she really have changed almost overnight and if she had what had sparked her change of attitude?

Walking into the kitchen I was surprised to see dad up, he hadn't bothered for two days, it even looked like he had attempted to have a shave. It was an improvement.

"How are you coping in this godforsaken place Dudders, not met any of those blasted freaks I hope? Shouldn't be allowed in decent society. Lock em all up I say."

"No dad, I haven't met any freaks," well not in my opinion, the wizards I'd met all seemed perfectly decent people to me. "Mainly I've been speaking to that boy Justin, the Eton one I mentioned a couple of days ago. I think we'll be doing our A levels together at the local school. He invited me to his birthday party, this evening. And please call me by name; I'm 17 not bloody 7 still."

"Language Dudley. Don't speak to your father like that," he bellowed.

"Do you ever wonder why I never brought friends round, I didn't want them to hear you or mum calling me Duddykins or Dudders or other rubbish. If they'd told anyone at Smeltings, my life wouldn't have been living." Of course that wasn't the real reason, I wanted to go out with my friends to bully the local kids and smash up the neighbourhood. I'd never admit that to Vernon Dursley however, he wouldn't believe I was a bully. No he saw himself as the perfect father. Ha. He'd led by example I'd been an ignorant bully, just like him. Hopefully I was changing for the better, I couldn't get any worse.

"Now Dudders you know it's meant affectionately."

"Ok dad, I can see that, but could you try to see it from my point of view. I'm not a kid anymore, I would like you to try and respect that. I'm going to need your support and care, if I'm going to get good enough grades to go to a decent university afterwards. It belittles me. It might even be why I used to get such poor grades at Smeltings, feeling that I was still just a kid." Boy where was I getting this from, I was laying it on so thick. The reason I was so bad at Smeltings was because I was a lazy git, but it might do some good.

"Why do you need to go to university I told you I'd give you a place at Grunnings, I am the director after all. That's if we still have a company after this debacle. I mean how can they expect a company to carry on working when their top man vanishes."

"Oh, Vernon, said mum from the kitchen door, "I wouldn't worry about that, according to THAT woman the other day, when we went shopping, the board is of the opinion you've gone on a long cruise for your health. There is someone perfectly capable working as your proxy." The expression on her face when she said THAT woman with a tone of such contempt didn't match the tone of her voice. "Even if everything works out all right and we can go back home, wouldn't it be better for the firm if Dudley actually had the qualifications for the job, instead of just being the director's son. Nobody could cry nepotism then, it would seem perfectly logical to be hiring a University graduate, the fact that he was your son would be a technicality."

"Good point, Petunia. Very good point. I still can't see how one of their lot could run the company properly."

"Well some of them seem to be very good at their jobs, isn't one chap guarding the Prime Minister, from that Lord Whatsisname's followers? Kingsley wasn't it?"

"Ok. Ok. I must say your attitude to these freaks and weirdoes seems to be changing, defending them against decent folk."

"Not really Vernon, just making a point, they don't want to be shackled with us forever. I'm sure that when this is all over they'll allow us to go back into decent society and resume our lives."

Dad seemed to be accepting this statement of mum's as if she were just resigned to the situation and making the best of a bad job. Like the evacuees in World War II. I could remember her telling me that granddad Evans had been evacuated in the war. Thinking about it, I can only remember that, no other details that mum might have told me. Granddad Evans had died before I was born, so I never him, grandma just before my first birthday, so I can't remember her, but I do know that somewhere mum had a photo of her at my christening.

I wasn't too sure if this wasn't an act for dad's benefit, though; she seemed too assured of herself. Had her attitude changed? Damn. I really needed to speak to her about this, without dad being there. But not today. Today I had other plans.

"dad, I'll take a look at the library sometime in the week, there might be a golf course nearby, you always said you wanted to improve your game," maybe if he went out to play golf I could get a chance to speak to mum without him there. "That should be free of 'freaks', can't imagine a golf club letting that sort in." Of course the fact that his idea of freaks and mine were completely different didn't matter. As long as he thought it magic free, he'd be happy.

"Good thinking Dudley if those freaks are going to give me a 'holiday' why don't I take advantage of it. The only golf I've had time for lately is my Japanese golfing joke. It might do me some good."

I couldn't believe he taken the bait, I looked at mum still standing in the doorway, looking quite pleased at this development. What was she thinking?

I called the taxi, using the 'coded instructions' that I'd got from Justin yesterday. I wanted try and arrive there as promptly as I could, but not knowing how long the journey could take. I didn't know how I could ask; not being able to give addresses out, but asked the operator anyway. "Hold the line Mr. Dursley, I'll just check for you." I don't know what she said to the drivers but was back to me a few seconds later, "the journey should take about five minutes maximum, Mr. Dursley, the taxi will be outside your house at five to. Nice doing business with you."

I thanked the operator and hung up the phone. Magic was amazing, how could they work out journey times from A to B when they couldn't say where A and B were. I had about three quarters of hour to wait then for this taxi. I'd changed earlier, I was wearing my newest pair of denim jeans, which for once I grateful for the fact that mum insisted on ironing creases into them and a formal shirt with the collar open, didn't want to wear a tie, bad enough having to wear them to school, but I did want to look smart.

I sat downstairs in the lounge drinking a cup of tea, trying to avoid listening to the rubbish that was on the television. I didn't really want to get into a conversation with mum and dad again that could get too heated and I might miss the taxi. Any way I knew from earlier that dad was just as prejudiced as he had always been, but I still wasn't sure about mum.

Suddenly there was the sound of a car horn from the street, my taxi was here, "I'll see you later, don't think I'll be too late, but I've got my key." I quickly left before they could ask me anything. I didn't want them finding too much out about Justin yet, until I was completely aware of their position on magic. I didn't want to tell them what I'd got him for his birthday either as that would have given the game away.

The taxi pulled up outside the house and I paid the driver, just £1.50, minimum fare, it seemed a bit daft th use a taxi to travel three streets, but it had been a necessity, I suppose, Justin couldn't tell me his address and I couldn't tell him mine. I wonder if I could find the house on my own, without the taxi if I needed to, or would the spell stop that as well. I'd realised I'd never completely understand magic, but at least I could see some of its benefits.

I walked up the front path and knocked on the front door. "Who is calling please?" came a high pitched voice that sounded a bit like someone on helium.

"I'm Dudley Dursley, I was invited by Justin to his birthday party."

The door opened; there was one of those things like that 'creature' that Dumbledore had summoned last year, before he took Harry. It was wearing what looked like a dirty pillow case with holes for its arms. "I is Biskit sir, I is pleased to be meeting you. Can I be taking your cloak sir?"

I assumed it meant my coat. I removed my leather jacket and handed it to the thing, whatever it was. "Master Justin is in the lounge, sir, through this door, it said indicating to my left." I thanked it and went into the lounge. Justin was sitting down talking to a pretty blonde girl, but looked up as I entered.

"Hi Dudley, glad you could make it, this is Hannah a friend from school. We're in Hufflepuff together. Hannah this is Dudley Dursley, the new friend I was telling you about, bet you can't guess his famous relative."

While Hannah was looking at me, trying to figure I was related to, I handed the present to Justin, "Happy Birthday, I know you said I needn't get anything but I wouldn't feel right without bringing a present."

"Thanks," he opened the parcel and raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Where did you manage to find wizard sweets in this town? I've been looking but not noticed myself. Are you sure you're not a wizard yourself?"

"It was easy, I asked a mutual acquaintance," I replied cryptically. If he was going to give his girlfriend a hard time about me, I could do the same to him.

I looked at over at Hannah, "worked it out yet?"

"No, sorry I don't have any idea; I don't think I've ever heard of any famous Dursleys', sorry."

"Well if that's how you're trying to work it out, you'll be here forever. My relative isn't a Dursley; we're related by the name Evans. Does that help?" She looked at me in a perplexed manner and obviously started trying to think of all the Evans's she could.

I heard a new voice behind me, "Happy Birthday Justin." It was a blonde boy about the same age, bit pretty looking, just the sort I'd have tried to beat up before, calling him a puff, or some such. He held a hand out to me, "hello, I'm Ernie Macmillan, I'm in Hufflepuff with Justin. What house were you in, I don't recognise you."

"I'm a muggle; I'm here because of a famous relative. Hannah is trying to work out I'm related to."

"Oh! Ok! So what's your surname?"

"Dursley, but that won't help you, we're related by the name Evans, but that might not help unless you know your history." I was quite enjoying this game, so apparently was Justin, he looked at me, thumbs up and a wide grin. Ernie went and sat down on the sofa next to Hannah and planted a quick kiss on her cheek. She smiled back at him, oops, I was wrong she wasn't Justin's girlfriend, but I still didn't have a chance. Just my luck.

I looked at Justin, a grin on my face, "shall I give them another clue? They'll have to leave for school soon."

"Go on, if you can think of one without giving the game away completely."

I beckoned to him and whispered in his ear. He gave me thumbs up. "My relative first came to fame nearly sixteen years ago, but is still famous today." They were racking their brains but were still not getting it; they were still thinking of muggles, must be. I could see that Justin was enjoying this as well. "They've got fixated on the fact I'm a muggle. Next clue Godric's Hollow, then Halloween 1981, then we tell them." I whispered in his ear. He grinned broadly at me, nodding his head.

"No sorry," said Ernie looking at me. "You're not telling us the whole story, are you?"

"No, where's the fun in that? Your next clue is Godric's Hollow."

"Hang on, is your relative a wizard?" Hannah asked looking hard at me.

"That would be telling, but isn't Godric's Hollow a mixed town, like Tinworth?"

"Hey, Godric's Hollow sixteen years ago. Are you related to Harry Potter?" asked Ernie as Hannah nodded at his side, as if she had worked it all out herself.

"Yeah, he's my cousin, his mum and mine were Petunia and Lily Evans. My mum married Vernon Dursley and her younger sister married James Potter."

"It's not fair, you don't look like 'A pig in a wig' at all, you're not bad looking," said Hannah. Ernie looked aside at her when she said I wasn't bad looking. I felt a certain surge of pride and curiosity.

"Pig in a wig! What is that supposed to mean?"

"I'm friendly with Luna Lovegood, who's a year below me; her friend is Ginny Weasley, the brother of Ron, who is Harry's best friend. She told me that Harry referred to you as a pig in wig when he was at their house."

"Ok! I don't like it. I can see where it comes from though. I used to be a lot heavier; I've lost at least 28 pounds. And to be fair I was an absolute pig to him. I'd bully him every chance I got."

There was a cough from behind me. "My lord, young masters, mistress, dinner is served in the dining room."

We all followed Justin to an adjoining room, there was a table with a fresh cloth on it, and it was covered in the usual sort of food you saw at parties, sausage rolls, chicken legs, everything you could think of. "I thought this might be better, we can talk about things and just help ourselves to what we want. It's not going to get very rowdy with just the four of us. I did invite a couple of other friends, but they couldn't make it."

We all picked up plates, what looked to be the best china, and helped ourselves to what we fancied form the table, I also poured myself a glassful of what I assumed was orange juice from a pitcher on the table. I wasn't going to drink that butterbeer, it was good, not alcoholic, or at least it didn't strike me that way. But if it was some sort of 'beer,' it was probably full of calories. We all made our way back to the lounge, this having more comfortable seats and sat down to eat and talk.

"So Dudley tell us what was Harry like as a cousin, he doesn't talk much about his family?"

"If you can call us family. I'm ashamed to say that until Harry got his first Hogwarts letter he slept in the cupboard under the stairs. He was an outcast in the house, anything strange happened and he was even lock in there for days on end. I do remember him getting into trouble at school for climbing on the roof, although in truth I'd seen what really happened. My friends and I were chasing him in order to beat him up. It was our favourite sport, 'Harry Hunting'; we made his life a misery. Anyway he jumped to try and hide behind some bins and landed three floors higher than he planned on the roof. He spent a week locked in the cupboard for that I think."

"Was that the only weird thing he did, he sounds like he had good control."

"What do you mean, good control? He did do a few other odd things though. My mum hated how his hair always stuck up, the one day she got the scissors out and cut it all off, leaving, just a fringe to hide 'that awful scar' as she called it. The next morning his hair was back o normal."

"As a young wizard, your magic starts show about 7 or 8, you do magic by instinct, so his leap to the roof was to get out of your way, and I suppose the hair growth was to avoid more bullying."

"I didn't know that, what would you say about making the glass disappear in the reptile house at the zoo then? It was my 11th birthday and my parents were taking me and a fried to the zoo. Usually Harry was dumped on a batty old neighbour with loads of cats, but she fell and broke her leg just before this. So Harry had to come with us. I thumped the glass to try and get the snake to move, got bored and moved to another animal, Harry stayed there and it looked like he was talking to the snake. The snake was all risen up, its hood flared, I knocked Harry to the floor and peered through the glass at the snake. Suddenly the glass was gone and the snake was out in the reptile house, I don't know if they ever recaptured it I just remember this snake free and I ran."

"He was talking to the snake, he's a Parselmouth," said Hannah. Everyone in school thought he was the heir of Slytherin in the second year."

"What's a Parselmouth? All I was told about his second year was that he rescued a student from some secret chamber and killed a basilisk and destroyed some enchanted book that was giving instructions to another student with one of its fangs."

"I heard about him killing the basilisk in fifth year, when Hermione Granger was organising what eventually became the DA," responded Hannah. But I didn't know about the book. The student involved was Ginny Weasley, Harry's girlfriend. She was taken to the 'Chamber of Secrets' and a message on the wall said something about her skeleton lying there forever, but Harry rescued her and killed the basilisk."

"Wait, Harry has a girlfriend; I can't even get a girl to talk to me. No disrespect Hannah, but you're only speaking to me because I'm Justin's guest."

"Not particularly, I would speak to you anyway; I wouldn't go out with you, because I have a boyfriend at the moment."

"Just my luck! Ah well I can hope. What's this got to do with Harry being a Parselmouth anyway?"

"That's my story, said Justin. Professor Lockhart set up a duelling club in the second year. He set up a match between Harry and Draco Malfoy a student, from Slytherin, who during the duel conjured a snake onto the duelling field. Harry lowered his wand and looked at the snake, Lockhart seeing this shot a spell at the snake which sent it flying where it landed near me. I'd told Harry earlier in the year that I was muggleborn, so with all the messages that been scrawled on the walls about the heir of Slytherin going after muggle born students; everyone present was shocked when Harry started speaking to the snake in Parseltongue. Salazar Slytherin was known as serpent-tongue, he could speak to snakes. Everyone including me thought Harry was ordering the snake to attack me. Professor Snape incinerated the snake, but the whole school was now convinced it was Harry who had opened the chamber and threatening to kill all the muggleborn students. I was told by the rest of my classmates to hide in our common room, because Harry knew what I was." On the way to the common room, I saw the basilisk through the ghost of Sir Nicholas and was petrified, turned partly to stone, but not killed. I was later revived with a special potion and I've made friends with Harry since then. But that's another story."

We chatted away for the rest of the evening, talking about my memories of Harry as a kid, and about Hogwarts and Harry's adventures there, occasionally helping our selves to something to eat or drink, I took 1 sip of that juice that I had poured myself, but it was so sweet, I stuck to butterbeer for the rest of the evening, that stuff was so sweet it might have been pure sugar. I learned sometime during the course of the evening that it was pumpkin juice; I wouldn't be drinking anymore of that.

Eleven o'clock came, Hannah and Ernie said they had to get home, but would let Justin know of any Harry Potter news they could and he could pass it on to me. I thanked them and wished them luck.

They turned around on the spot and vanished with two loud cracks, Justin just nodded at this. I looked at him in surprise, "what was that?"

"They apparated home, they live miles from here. I can't apparate myself, you need a licence for it and I failed to get mine, kept splinching myself."

"Oh! I've been apparated but never seen it from the departure end. But what's splinching?"

"Leaving bits behind, there's a special spell placed on the practice grounds when you learn, so no permanent damage is done, but it could get nasty, if you leave your heart, liver or kidneys behind in real life. Anyway I failed to pass."

"Sorry!"

"It's ok, I'll get back to it if the war ends and I can go back to Hogwarts to finish my education."

"I wish you luck when and if that happens, might I ask a question about something I've seen here today?"

"Sure, I'll answer it if I can."

"Who and what is Biskit? I've seen one of those things before, Dumbledore summoned one to our house in surrey, last year, before he took Harry to his friends' house!"

"Biskit is a house elf, they are the servant's of magical families, basically enslaved; when my father was injured in a car accident in my second year, we tried to get magical help to fix his injuries, but they could do nothing about the brain damage, so we managed to get a house elf to help take care of him. He died just over a year ago, a result of complications from that accident and Biskit was now part of the family and she stayed."

"Right, what's with the pillowcase though? Can't you give her something better to wear?"

"Unfortunately not! One of the ways to dismiss a house elf is to give it clothes, they won't accept payment, don't want to be freed. They enjoy looking after wizards. I only heard of one house elf wanting to be free, he was called Dobby, abused badly by his masters. Harry managed to trick his owner into setting him free at the end of our second year. He works at Hogwarts now, the only house elf among hundreds that it paid a wage. The rest of them, barely tolerate him. I've met him a couple of times and like him."

"Oh right. That complicates things."

"It does a bit. A friend of Harry's, Hermione Granger is trying to change the conditions that house elves work under, but I don't think she'll have much luck. They like their lives and don't want to change anything. I think she's flogging a dead horse, but you never know with Hermione granger, if anyone can do it, it's her. She's the cleverest witch in our year, probably the school."

I thanked Justin for clearing that point up for me, and said I probably should go. He asked if he wanted him to call a taxi and I answered no, I could walk from here. As I was saying this, Biskit appeared with my leather jacket; I thanked her and went out the front door. I got about halfway home and thought I would try to find my way back to Justin's, just to see if I could. I turned round to head back there, but I had no idea of which way to go. I couldn't find his house on my own, magic was so cool. I turned and continued home.

I had learned a lot about Harry; he had a lot of friends at school, was well liked and even been a good teacher. Would he want to be friends with me? I hoped so.

Please review. Hannah and Ernie will play a small part in my story, but at this time I don't think we'll see them again. I may be wrong. Can anyone guess what part they'll play? Thank you to everyone who has reviewed my story and especially those who have put it as a favourite. I hope you continue to enjoy.


	7. Chapter 7

A New Beginning.

By Jon08

Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

I have always thought that a lot is left out of the books about Dudley. What did he see when the dementors attacked him? Why did he put that cup of tea out for Harry? Did he try to change himself because of it?

Chapter 7

It had been two weeks since Justin's birthday and we had continued to be friends, it was a good feeling to have a real friend.

We had had some encouragement from the Daily Prophet as odd as it would seem from the headlines. The news that Harry was 'Wanted For Questioning about the Death of Albus Dumbledore' while it showed that something drastic had happened in the wizard world it told us that Harry was still alive and free. His friend Hermione Granger was wanting for questioning by the Muggle Born Registration Commission, was also good news in a way. She was also free. It was now compulsory for Pure and Half Bloods to attend Hogwarts, so we would not be seeing Hannah and Ernie for a while, at least until Christmas, if then. If they were being monitored by ministry officials to see if they met up with any mudbloods, then we wouldn't see them even then.

On Monday 1st September, the headline and subsequent story was one that had Justin crying out in horror. "'Severus Snape Confirmed As Hogwarts Headmaster', what happened to McGonagall? She was the new headmaster after Dumbledore died last year, Snape killed him according to Harry, he saw it. I remember the DA being called to fight for the school; there were Death Eaters in the castle. Luckily nobody except Dumbledore died, but Snape fled the school that night."

The paper went on to say about other appointments at the school, somebody called the Carrows for Muggle Studies and Defence Against The Dark Arts. Justin was enraged about this, apparently they had been known supporters of 'You Know Who.' Hogwarts was being taken over by his followers.

Our first day at our new school was nearly upon us, our year would begin that Thursday, we would be given our new timetables and get the workload, for our last year of A level study, I knew it would be hard for me. The grades I had got at Smeltings were not very good; I'd have to work hard to pass this year. I really did want to go to University after I finished school. Dad was also all for this idea, now, almost looking forward to the idea of me as a graduate working at Grunnings, I hated to tell him that I didn't want to do that after I graduated. I had made some decisions based on the way my attitude had been altered by the dementor's and my realisation of what Harry had gone through with my family all his life. I wanted to do something about other children in similar circumstances, no necessarily wizards, but all kids who were abused by their families. Social work seemed a good direction for me to go in. I had even looked a few things up about it in the library. I needed a Diploma in Social Work to get me into that line of work, and although I had no idea which Universities offered this, it was something I was going to pursue.

On the Tuesday before school began, Justin had informed me that Harry and Hermione had vanished the day after his birthday, there had been a Death Eater raid at the wedding of Bill and Fleur Weasley, but Harry and Hermione were not found.

"Hang on, how do you know this, it's not been reported anywhere?"

"This!" Justin held a gold Galleon in his hand with a grin on his face. "It's got a Protean Charm on it. If you spell a message onto one of the coins it appears on all the others. We used them in the fifth year, to arrange meetings of the DA. It was Hermione who put the spell onto some fake galleons, that's magic way beyond N.E.W.T. level, I said she was clever."

"Who told you and how did they find out?"

"Hannah, she was told by Luna, who's a friend of Ginny Weasley, apparently her brother Ron is at home quarantined with Spattergroit."

"Spattergroit, are you having me on? That's sounds about as real as idleitus or the dreaded lurgy."

"No! It's a real wizard disease, you get covered in purple pustules, its horribly contagious apparently."

"Sounds awful! So, do you think Harry and Hermione are together, doing whatever they're doing?"

"I would think so. Hermione isn't going to be able to show her face in wizard society and if Harry is on the run as well, they can help each other."

"Well at least now I know that Harry didn't get the card I sent him."

"Card?"

"Well I realised his birthday had passed and I hadn't given him even as much as a Birthday card in all the years he'd lived with us. So I sent one by muggle post to him at the Weasleys' address, but he would have been gone before it arrived. I wrote a letter in the card basically saying sorry for all I'd done to him in the past and saying I wanted a fresh start. He won't get it now until this is all over. If he survives. I feel like I've left it too late to know someone who should have been my best friend."

On the Wednesday there was some good news:

'Break In At The Ministry, Muggle-borns Freed.'

The Daily Prophet can exclusively report that yesterday, there was a break in at the Ministry of Magic by person or persons unknown. The office of Dolores Jane Umbridge, head of the Muggle Born Registration Commission was broken into and several filing cabinets containing confidential material were broken into. It is unknown what information was accessed but it is understood that the commission keeps all records of muggle born witches and those pure blood families who have questionable attitudes to the new regime.

Further to this the Prophet can report that Dolores Umbridge was assaulted in the middle of her questioning of several persons undergoing questioning by the commission, including the wife and children of Ministry employee Reginald Cattermole were set free by the unknown intruders, and scattering the Dementors who were guarding them.

Reports from eye witnesses report three separate Patronuses, a silver stag, an otter and a terrier. It is not known who the intruders were, but the Patronus of wanted fugitive Harry Potter is known to be a stag. It is speculated that one of the other intruders may be wanted muggleborn witch, Hermione Granger. It would be assumed that the third was Ronald Weasley, a known friend of both persons, but Ministry sources have confirmed that Ronald Weasley is currently quarantined at home with Spattergroit. All Possibilities are being looked into; and a Ministry spokesman said 'at this time, no possibility is being ruled out.'

Meanwhile Reginald Cattermole and his family along with the families of the other muggle-borns freed cannot be found. It is to be assumed they have fled the country.

Meanwhile if you have any details of the whereabouts of these dangerous criminals, please contact the Ministry by owl or floo.

Orion Tweet Reporter.

"Harry's Patronus is a stag, Hermione's was the otter, and if I remember correctly Ron has a terrier for his, so how he is as home with Spattergroit, I don't know, but I suspect his family are in on it as well," said Justin as we read the article. "What would Harry want in the ministry? Why attack Umbridge? Personally I'd like to kill the woman, but to do it in the ministry. It's got to be the most dangerous place for him to go. It doesn't make sense."

"You're missing the point. This is good news. They are alive, they escaped. And the ministry don't know for certain it was them. They're only speculating it was them. I'm sure they had a very good reason for doing whatever it was they were doing."

"Good point! Ok, let's put it this way, good luck Harry Potter and friends, wherever you are, hope you succeed in all your tasks."

"Here, here."

The next morning was our first at our new school, 'St. Piran's Comprehensive' apparently St Piran was the patron saint of tin miners and one of the patron saints of Cornwall, the area of the country where Tinworth was. Interesting if you were into that sort of thing. I was expecting a chat from the Headmaster about my grades for the end of last year and the extra work I would need to bring myself up to the required standard to continue to my exams, but either their standards were lower than at my old school, or there had been some tampering with my school records. I suspected the latter. It wasn't that I was stupid, I wasn't, and I was just lazy. Justin and I were given our timetables the classes we were taking, I had more free time than Justin, who was taking a greater number of subjects than me. The time we had free was meant to be used for study and homework. But on the first afternoon of school I had no homework to do, I had no reading that I wanted to do, either school or magically related, so decided, to go to the gym and use the pool for a swim.

Justin and I had used the gym a few times, always looking out for cute girls to chat up, but had no luck; the only girls we had seen were just out of nursery school, nowhere near old enough to interest us. It seemed there were no girls our age in the area. So, imagine my surprise when there was a girl about 17 swimming lengths in the pool.

She seemed to be swimming a bit oddly, as it her left leg wasn't bending properly, but she was certainly putting an effort into it. I got into the pool and started doing my own lengths, I thought I was a reasonable swimmer, but whoever this girl was, she was putting me to shame despite her 'gammy' leg. I concentrated on my own swimming, trying not to think about the girl, just do my own exercise. Swimming was a good exercise for muscle tone and a good cardiac workout; I remembered that from the Smeltings boxing coach.

To my disappointment, when I finished my own regime of lengths, the girl was gone. Just my luck. I left the pool, showered and dressed and headed to the cafe area. The girl was seated in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs, that all these public institutions seemed to suffer from; there was some sort of metal brace on her left leg and a crutch by her side. I got myself a bottle of water from the vending machine, and sat down to glimpse through one of the text books I'd been given this morning. The sections I needed to read were clearly marked. This subject was going to be easier than I'd thought; I'd studied most of this material in the last term at Smeltings. I read the notes left in the book by the teacher; I was at least three months ahead of the curriculum here. Was Smeltings that much more thorough or was I really not as thick as I thought?

I looked up as I heard the sound of a chair moving on the hard stone floor, the girl was getting up awkwardly to leave. Suddenly, her crutch slipped on something, maybe a wet patch on the floor. Before I realised what I was doing I was out of my seat and catching her, before she could go face first into the hard tiles.

"Thanks, I really don't need to break any more bones."

"Are you alright, now? If I let you go, you're not going to attempt another nose dive at the floor?"

"I'll be fine, thanks. I'm Lisa. And..."

"Dudley Dursley!"

"Thanks' for the rescue Dudley; I'll see you in school tomorrow."

"How do you know I'm going to school?"

"Oh nothing really. Just that text book, you've been trying to read for the last ten minutes. I would have been there myself, only I had a visit to the fracture clinic this morning and physiotherapy this afternoon. That's where you were trying not to stare at me in the pool."

"Oh, so you noticed me."

"Yeah, and noticed you noticing me as well!" Our conversation was interrupted by a mobile phone ringing loudly from her bag. "Ok, thanks Richard, I'm on my way down." She turned and looked at me. "Sorry, that's my lift home, see you tomorrow at school." She went to the lift and went down to the main lobby. I watched through the glass window as she went and got in the passenger seat of an open top car. The driver looked about the same age as us, so definitely not her dad. Damn, another girl already with a boyfriend.

Please Review. Many thanks to those NICE people who have said such good things about my writing. Please continue to do so, hint. I'll be as fast as I can with the next chapter. Enjoy...


	8. Chapter 8

A New Beginning.

By Jon08

Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

I have always thought that a lot is left out of the books about Dudley. What did he see when the dementors attacked him? Why did he put that cup of tea out for Harry? Did he try to change himself because of it?

Again I must say thank you to all the nice people who've reviewed my story, or put it on alert. I'd like to mention that some reviewers have definitely passed their Divination Exam. They know who they are. Please continue to read and enjoy.

Chapter 8

The next day at school was a full one for me, mathematics all morning, I hated the subject, but at Smeltings, it was a required subject for A levels students and now I was apparently stuck with it here as well. Justin was in the same class as me for this, the only class we had together, he seemed to find it so easy. I envied him. All these differentials, logarithmic and whatchamacallit functions made my brain hurt. If I really worked at it, I could make some sense of it, but most of it seemed to make no sense. During midmorning break, I told Justin about the girl I'd seen the previous afternoon in the pool. "She's a student at this school, but couldn't come yesterday, some appointment, her left leg must have been broken. I didn't get too much information before she was picked up by some kid called Richard. Yet another girl with a boyfriend already."

Justin agreed with me, there really was a dearth of single girls our age around this town. In our year, there was only seven girls, to about fifteen boys, and as far as we were aware, they all had boyfriends. Rotten luck on our part.

After midmorning break it was back to another torture session of mathematics, this really wasn't my subject, but after 1 year of it at Smeltings, and only one year left before final exams, it was too late to dump it and take another subject. I couldn't manage to do two years work for a subject in 1 year and continue with the other 2 I was taking, and I needed 3 A levels to get to University, I was stuck with it.

I stayed behind after the class to speak with the teacher, I felt I needed help to do well in this class, and maybe could benefit from some extra tuition. He felt that it was too early to tell, but would bear it in mind later, if I was still struggling. Ok. I wasn't as hopeless as I had expected, that was slightly encouraging, but I still hated the subject. Wasn't going to tell the teacher that, he was probably the sort of person who would sort his socks according to some obscure mathematical formula, and believed the world would end if they were out of order. I had read of some mathematicians like that... Anal, the lot of them.

I made my way to the canteen to get myself some lunch, I was glad I was no longer on that diet that the Smeltings nurse had put me on. I could eat properly, but healthily, and truth be told preferred it. No more burgers etc for me. I just hoped there was healthy options on the menu.

I got some salad, avoiding the chips, (fries to any American readers), and other fried food options that they were offering with it, taking some of the tuna mayonnaise, on offer. I looked around for Justin; at least I could sit with a friend and saw him talking to a familiar face. It was Lisa from yesterday. As I walked up to join them Lisa smiled and waved at me. That was unexpected and puzzling it seemed yesterday she had a boyfriend, that Richard.

"You never told me that you knew Justin!"

"Well neither did you, it was only a brief talk after I stopped your nosedive into the tiles and then you left with your boyfriend."

"A puzzled look crossed her face. Oh you mean Richard? He's my older brother; he left school two years ago. I need his help to get around while I'm wearing this thing," she said indicating the frame on her leg. If I wore it while I was swimming I'd sink, but I'm supposed to wear it at all other times."

"Ok! So how do you know Justin, he just moved into the area like me? Hang on! Did you go to Hogwarts as well?"

"How do you know about Hogwarts? You obviously aren't magical or you'd have gone there, yourself, and although this is a mixed town most muggles here don't know its name either, just that a lot of kids in the area go to a school for the gifted. I'm sure some of them think there's something special about the area to get so many gifted students."

I looked at Justin with a grin, "I have a magical relative, can you guess who it is?"

"Ok, Mandy is an only child and so are her parents, so no relatives there. Seamus is half blood, so you could be related to his muggle dad, but you don't sound Irish. Hermione Granger never mentioned any relatives except her Mum and Dad. I can't think of any other muggleborns of hand. Oh! Hang on! You're blonde and they mentioned brothers and sisters who weren't magical, are you related to Colin and Dennis Creevey?"

"No, sorry, I've never heard of any of them."

"Ok! Hannah and Ernie are half bloods, how about them?"

"No, but I have met them. They were with me a Justin's party."

"I've got no idea then, can you give me a clue?"

I took one of my exercise books from my bag and drew a line on it in the shape of Harry's scar. She looked at me with a puzzled expression, obviously not making ht e connection. I grinned at Justin again, this was fun. I lifted my book up and held it in front of my face for a couple of seconds and dropped it back on the table.

Slowly a look of comprehension came to her face. "You're related to Harry Potter, he never said he had any brothers and sisters. I thought he was an only child."

"He is, I'm his cousin, although he did live with us after his parents died."

"Go on; say it I don't look like a 'pig in a wig.'"

"Why would I say that, its hurtful? But why would you say it?"

"Justin old me that that's how Harry described me. I assumed you'd heard it too. I used to be a lot heavier, and I was an absolute pig to him, in the way I treated him."

"Sorry, never heard it. When did you hear it?" she said looking at Justin.

"Luna Lovegood! She heard it from Ginny Weasley, told us once in the common room," replied Justin.

"Right. I see. Well I wouldn't have heard it then; I was in Ravenclaw, not Hufflepuff with Justin. And it's completely untrue, you look nothing like a pig, in a wig or otherwise."

"Thanks, that's good to know. What subjects are you taking, I didn't see you this morning, so you're obviously not taking mathematics, lucky you?"

"No, I'm doing French, History, Chemistry, Physics, biology, English Language and English literature."

"I see you're a masochist, enjoy causing yourself pain, must be to be taking that lot. I'm only doing Mathematics, English Literature and Chemistry and finding that a lot of work."

"It's not that bad. There was one girl at Hogwarts taking twelve subjects..."

"I know, Hermione, a friend of Harry's, Justin told me."

At that point, the bell rang for the end of lunch and it was time for us to head for our afternoon lessons. I took Lisa's empty plate and placed it in the pile with all the others at the side of the canteen and picked up my book bag and hers.

"What are you doing?"

"Well, we've got English Literature this afternoon, so if I carry your books it means I've got a good reason to walk there with a pretty girl. Of course, if you'd rather I didn't..."

"No, that's fine and thank you."

As we walked to class I tried to find out more about her. "So, what does your brother do?"

"He's a Police officer, about twelve months now!"

"Ok! So that means I've got to be a gentleman towards you or he'll arrest me, thanks for the warning," I laughed.

"That's right." She laughed, "In fact you'd better be 'the perfect gentleman' or I'll tell him and you'll be doing life in Dartmoor."

"Right, I'll remember that. Does your brother, Dick, work at the local station? Is that why you're here in Tinworth?"

"No. He works at Tintagel, not too far from here, but do yourself a favour and never call him Dick, he hates it."

"Why? It's what people called Richard are nicknamed?"

"Not when your surname is Turpin!"

I laughed, "oh no, your brother is Dick Turpin and he's a Police Officer, that's a good one."

"Well you see why he hates Dick, my dad thought it was a good joke, but Richard hated it."

School continued as September progressed, Justin, Lisa and I continued to be friends, and so far I hadn't been arrested. So I must have the perfect gentleman that Lisa wanted me to be. Towards the end of September, Lisa finally got the frame off her leg and a result spent more time with the two of use when we weren't in school.

It was the beginning of October, one Saturday, Justin, Lisa and I were seated together in the cafe at the gym, discussing something about a new radio programme that Justin had heard the previous night. "It's called Potterwatch. Friends of Harry and supporters of our side give out news and events that the Daily Prophet doesn't mention. Everybody had code names, so it's not obvious who they are."

"How can I tune in, it sounds like I want to listen to?" I asked Justin.

"You'll need a wizard wireless set and a wand to tune in, and the password. I assume that wand card you've got will suffice. The next password is Lily. Trouble is they never broadcast at the same time each night, or from the same place, trying to keep away from the Death Eaters I suppose."

"Sounds reasonable, I want to keep away from them as well. You say everybody has codenames, have you recognised anyone?"

"I think Professor McGonagall is 'Rangers' after a Scottish football team, Professor Lupin is Romulus and the presenter is Lee Jordan, River. I didn't hear any other's last night. I'd love to know how McGonagall was on it as she's teaching at Hogwarts. They could have been in Hogsmeade I suppose."

"You could be right, but isn't that the town nearest to the school, it must be Death Eater Central. It's a big risk that."

"It is. Knowing lee though, I wouldn't have been surprised if he was transmitting from the great hall of Hogwarts. He was great friends with Fred and George Weasley, the school's biggest jokers in years. There's a swamp on the fifth floor because of them. They turned the whole floor into a swamp when Umbridge was there. Filch, the caretaker had to take students across it in a punt. When she was sacked Professor Flitwick removed it easily when she was gone, but left a little bit of it there. A testament to their skill."

"I met them, came with their dad before the Quidditch World Cup to collect Harry, blew the lounge up, and as they were leaving, dropped some sweets. I was on a diet, ordered by the school, grabbed the toffees and scoffed the lot. Before my Dad would let Mr Weasley shrink my tongue it was nearly four foot long. I don't think I've eaten a toffee since."

"you must've been one of their first test subjects for Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes, their joke shop. When they left in the fifth year, they moved into a shop in Diagon Alley. Must have made a fortune from students that year suffering from Umbridgitus."

"What was Umbridgitus?"

"Every class she tried to teach after Fred and George left; had loads of students leaving with continuous vomiting, nosebleeds, high fevers. Funny how everyone got better between her class and the hospital wing. That was their skiving snackboxes; Puking Pastilles, Fever Fudge and Nosebleed Nougat. You ate one end of the sweet to make you ill, and as you left the lesson, ate the other end and you were cured."

"I want some, they sound like great fun. How can I get hold of them?"

"You can't. Their shop is in London, and to get mail order, you'd need to get past the Fidelius Charm to give your address." Even after nearly two months, I still couldn't find my way to Justin's house or him to mine, we had to meet up at the newsagents and take each other to our respective homes. Mum and Dad were of course oblivious to this little piece of subterfuge when it came to me going to Justin's, they knew I had to let him in it ours, but they didn't know him being magic, so they just thought I walked to his house as easily as I went to the shops. I still hadn't had a chance to talk to Mum about her attitude to magic. Dad played golf a couple of times a week at the nearest club, but usually while I was at school and he was back home before me.

Whenever Justin came to mine, he usually came with me from school or the gym or wherever we'd supposedly met up. I'd warned him about their prejudices and he was careful to avoid mentioning anything about the wizarding world when at ours. My parents were of the opinion his family had moved to the area because of his late father's health. Dad was the same with Justin as he'd been with anyone who thought could help him socially, like that Mr. and Mrs. Mason, he tried to impress with a dinner party at our house in Surrey before the Second year. He really was the most pretentious social climber.

I listened that night to the new wizard radio I had purchased; the password lily had tuned the radio to Potterwatch. Romulus was stating a belief that Harry was on some secret business for Dumbledore. "We should fight for our freedom and be ready to answer his call when it comes. I'm sure he'll need our help and we must be ready to answer that call when it comes." I was listening to the radio and keeping an ear out for any sounds from the house, I heard thru creak of a floor board, turned the radio off, jumped up and opened the door to the landing. The bathroom door was closing and I heard the click of the lock. Who was it? Mum or Dad? And what had they heard?

Author Note: Dick Turpin was a famous British highwayman in the 18th century.

Tintagel is a real place in Cornwall, England. Some people think it was the real site of King Arthur's Camelot. This is irrelevant to this story, just thought you might like to know.


	9. Chapter 9

A New Beginning.

By Jon08

Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

I have always thought that a lot is left out of the books about Dudley. What did he see when the dementors attacked him? Why did he put that cup of tea out for Harry? Did he try to change himself because of it?

Chapter 9

Potterwatch had finished when I got back to the radio, I hoped I had not missed anything of importance, apart from the password for the next episode. I could get that from Justin, the next time I saw him. Had someone been listening at the door, Mum? or Dad? What if anything had they heard?

I still didn't know what Mum's feelings were towards magic and Harry. She hadn't mentioned Harry or his freakiness once in the whole time we'd been here and whenever she talked about 'those' people or something about magic, it didn't seem as if the same level of hatred was in her voice. I needed to have a private talk with her, without Dad in the house. Fat chance of that at the moment.

It was the week of half term and I had high hopes of being able to talk with Mum in private, to try and find out if her attitude to magic had changed. My hopes were dashed however, the golf club was closed to the public, and there was some sort of tournament. Dad was under foot the entire week. His attitude hadn't changed in the slightest. He was convinced this tournament was some plot of those 'freaks' to disrupt everything decent about society.

I bided my time; I was bound to be able to speak with Mum at some point. I tried to concentrate on my studies. Either the teachers at this school were better than those at Smeltings or I was being a better student. It was probably the latter. The maths was still causing me problems, but I was coping.

The news that Justin and Lisa got from Hogwarts from Hannah and Ernie was not good. The Cruciatus curse was being taught and the students were encouraged to use it on those who had earned detentions. Dumbledore's Army was more active than ever, there were no practice sessions of protective spells, but they were actively and secretly opposing the Carrows. They were rescuing students from cruel punishments, writing pro-Potter slogans on walls.

There had even been an attempted break in, the sword of Godric Gryffindor an important wizarding heirloom was kept in a glass case in the office of the Hogwarts headmaster. Ginny, Luna and Neville had tried to steal it; apparently it had been left to Harry in Dumbledore's will, who knows why? But the break in had failed and for punishment the perpetrators had been sent to the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid. Why hadn't Snape handed them over to the Carrows for punishment? The sword had been moved somewhere safe, location unknown.

"It's probably Gringott's, the safest location in the wizarding world, there are countless vaults hidden under the streets of London. I've never been down to the vaults; I only went into the lobby to change Muggle money to wizard money. You need to be a wizard family to get a vault under Gringott's."

"But surely as you're a wizard now, you could open an account. Get yourself a vault."

"Probably, if I ever get back to Hogwarts and pass my exams, I'll see to it. If I went there now, I'd be arrested as a muggle born and probably sent to Azkaban for stealing a wizards magic. Complete rubbish, if that were possible, there would never be such a thing as squibs. It's all a propaganda campaign by the ministry and 'You Know Who'. They're trying to justify murder."

"Yeah, well that happens all the time in the muggle world, remember the Holocaust, six million Jews, killed to justify Hitler's master plan. It's the same thing only 'You Know Who' has targeted six billion muggles."

"I suppose so, but it doesn't explain why Dumbledore wanted Harry to have the sword, I don't think that's how he's going to kill 'You Know Who', just stick a sword in him. I'd do it myself if I thought it was that easy."

"I doubt it'd work, he's died once, hasn't he?" when he tried to kill Harry as a baby. Death is final for wizards, the same way as muggles right?"

"Normally, yes. Some decide to remain as ghosts, but usually death is the end. Nobody knows how 'He Who Must Not Be Named" did it. Dumbledore might have known, but he's dead and he didn't come back as a ghost. Dumbledore was the only person that 'You Know Who' feared, and now he's gone. We can only hope he told Harry how to do it."

"I hope so; I don't want to lose my cousin, before I've found him."

It was just before we started back after the break that I saw Mum, knitting, something I hadn't seen her do before. She always bought all my clothes, insisting on only the best for her Dudders.

"Mum, what's with the knitting?"

"I need to do something, Dudley, I've got no WI or friends to go round and see. So I thought I'd try knitting again, I always knitted your baby booties. It's just a way to pass time, I'll probably just unpick it all when I've finished and knit something else. I've not got much else to do here, not that I'm ungrateful you understand. Glad we're safe, but I've got to do something."

"Right, just don't go knitting me any booties; I outgrew them a long time ago."

"I know dear, but there's nothing wrong with making your own clothes if you can't afford to buy them. Of course we could always afford the best."

It was later up in my room, trying to get a signal on the radio, for Potterwatch, there had been nothing on the air for days, and Justin, Lisa and I were beginning to wonder if they'd been captured. Surely that would have been reported though? I was thinking of my Mum sitting downstairs knitting clothes, and an idea occurred to me. Biskit. I'd been to Justin's several times and I was always shocked that their house elf, Biskit, always went around in an old pillow case. Justin had explained to me the terms of their employment. If you gave them clothes it set them free, they wouldn't take payment. But could they make themselves some clothing. They made use of other 'clothing' like the pillowcase. I decided to talk to Justin and Biskit tomorrow after school.

That day I told Justin, my idea, he had no idea if it would be taken as payment by the house elf or clothes, but agreed we could ask Biskit about it.

"Biskit. I need to speak with you!"

"There was loud crack and Biskit appeared in the lounge, "Master wishes to speak with Biskit? Is there anything wrong? Does Biskit need to be punished?"

"No, you are doing a very good job, everything is fine. I want to talk to you about the rules of house elf employment."

"Why Master. You is not going to free Biskit, is you? Please do not be doing that!"

"No Biskit, I am not going to set you free, and I know you don't want payment, but if you can't be given clothes to wear by a master, how can you wear that old pillow case. If you can make new clothes for your masters? What is to stop you making clothes for yourself? Just think of the status you would have among your fellow house elves if you were properly employed and able to wear real clothes."

"I is not understanding Master! If you is giving Biskit clothes, you is setting her free. Biskit does not want to be free."

Justin looked at me, "I knew this would be difficult, she just equates clothes with being set free. House elves are all the same. The ones at Hogwarts were adamant they didn't want to be set free. They all used to wear tea towels or napkins, they were proud of their servitude. It's a badge of honour for them. I don't know how to get round it."

"Biskit, can I ask you a question?" I asked her. "If you were to alter that pillowcase so it looked like proper clothes, would that be the same as Master Justin setting you free? You repair Master's clothes for him. How is that different from giving you clothes? You do his laundry; he is not setting you free then. He is not saying he wants' to free you or pay you. He wants' to reward you for being such a good house elf."

"I is thinking about that master Dudley. I does not know how to answer."

Justin looked me, surprise on his face. "You think about it, Biskit. If you would like to alter that pillowcase to look more like real clothes, you have my permission, but it is your choice. I am not going to set you free. I know you don't want that."

The look on Biskit's face was grateful, but also slightly puzzled as if she was unaware of what to think of the new situation.

I looked at Justin, "I think for now, leave it at that, we don't want to confuse her. If she wants to make her own clothes, let her. It's at least a step in the right direction."

"I agree, but do you realise what you could have done here, you may have altered a cornerstone of wizard society. House elves have always believed they couldn't wear clothes, now they could be able to."

"Not really, they've always worn clothes, just very shabby and ill fitting ones. Biskit is clothed right now in a pillow case. What's the difference between that and her turning it into a dress?"

"I wish Hermione Granger was here, I always thought her S.P.E.W. was wrong, but you may have found a way for it to work."

"What's Spew? Sounds disgusting."

"Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare. She got it into her head fourth year that house elves were enslaved and set about trying to free them. Eventually she was taken to the Hogwarts kitchens where they told her in no uncertain terms, that they did not want to be freed or paid. If they weren't such peaceful creatures, they might have done her harm. I heard when dobby was freed that he almost killed his former master protecting Harry from him. They have very powerful magic in their own right."

"I can see her point, Biskit's and yours." I said, "Hermione thinks that the house elves are slaves, they're not. In one sense you could call them lodgers. They do not pay rent, but do laundry, cooking, cleaning etc instead paying rent; they're warm, dry, housed and fed. If house elves were not employed by wizards they would be living in the wild, trying to survive, probably like primitive man. Biskit see's it that she enjoys looking after you and your family; she has a purpose, a reason for living. She feels a sense of purpose in what she does. She has always been told that by being given clothes, she would be set free, or as she sees it, thrown out into the wild world on her own. You see Biskit working for you, you want to be kind to her, but cannot do anything to improve her conditions without going against what has always been seen as 'the contract' of house elf employment."

"I see your point. We'll leave it up to Biskit. It's up to her now."

"Together, you, me and Biskit, remaking the wizard world in our own image."

The term progressed slowly towards Christmas, with still no news from Potterwatch, it was if they'd just shut down, we were trying every word we could think of. Justin was using all names from the modern wizard world, I was trying names I'd read from the history books Salazar, Godric, Rowena, and Helga, the names of goblins from the rebellions, but no luck. There was no response. It was frustrating,

We broke up for the Christmas holidays, still without any news, Hannah and Ernie were not able to tell us much. We had no idea how Harry was doing on whatever his mysterious quest, it was frustrating, we wanted news from somewhere. We felt left out by this; we couldn't do scything to help.

There was some news the day after we broke up; Justin was at mine, we had decided to get our homework out of the way as quickly as we could, so we could enjoy the holidays. We were working together on our Mathematics together, when he gave a start and fumbled in his pocket. He removed the fake galleon and started swapping it quickly from hand to hand. He dropped it quickly onto the desk in my room.

"News from Hannah or Ernie!" I asked.

"Yeah, Luna has been taken off the school train. Death Eaters just turned up and grabbed her, apparating away with no explanation."

"Ok, I remember she's a year below you in Hufflepuff, but why would they kidnap her? She's not important is she?"

"Her dad is the editor of 'The Quibbler,' a pretty useless magazine, generally it published the wizard equivalent of the 'Am Alien Ate My Hamster Story,' the local shop doesn't stock it. It has talked about Crumple Horned Snorkacks, Wrakspurts and Nargles in the past, creatures that don't exist. I don't know why they would kidnap her, it's odd!"

"Has the paper changed lately, I mean that could be an explanation?"

"Dunno. Even if it has how can we check, there's nowhere to buy it."

"No, but we can check out back issues at the library, come on!"

The library was open on the Monday for the last time before the New Year. We met up there at ten that morning and went to the hidden section, where all the magical books were kept.

There was a whole section of old Daily Prophets, but we weren't interested in them, there was Witch Weekly, Transfiguration Today, Practical Potioneer, but we couldn't find the Quibbler.

Finally we found it, right next to the bins, almost as if they'd placed there ready for disposal.

The headlines were a revelation; 'Harry Potter: The Wizard Worlds Only Hope'; 'Support Harry Potter'. For the past few months, that and similar was the only articles written in the magazine. The whole o the magazine was devoted to ways in which you could be of help to Harry, how to protect yourself and your family in the event of an attack. It had no news so to speak of, but it was a bit of hope in its way. Somebody was on Harry's side and they weren't afraid of showing it. We spent most of the day, reading all the relevant back issues we could get our hands on. Justin even found me one the fifth year, that was its best selling edition. 'Harry Potter Speaks Out At Last'. The whole magazine was an interview of Harry done by Rita Skeeter."

"I thought you didn't like her?"

"Apparently she was coerced into writing this by Hermione Granger, nobody knows how, but it was the only thing she wrote in over a year. A lot of people read it and realised at the time that the Prophet hadn't been telling the whole truth. We had such fun with that article. It was an offence you could be expelled for; carrying a copy of the Quibbler. Nearly everybody had a copy, bewitched to be something else if Umbridge got hold of it. Mine looked like a piece of transfiguration homework. Nobody got expelled for having it. That woman got off too lightly in my opinion. She spent a month in St Mungo's Janus Thickey Ward and then beck to work at the ministry as if nothing had happened. Toad."

"Janus Thickey? St Mungo's?"

"Mental health ward at the wizard hospital. She was apparently afraid of centaurs when she left the school. Even a clip clop noise could send her hysterical. Pity it didn't last."

"She sounds a delightful woman! Glad I never met her."

We left the library, cheered up by the positive articles we'd read, and determined to see the next issue of the Quibbler as soon as it came out. There seemed to be a good feeling in the air as we headed for Christmas. I hope nothing would spoil it

Please continue to enjoy, reviews are much appreciated. I hope to introduce another character in the next chapter for a guest appearance. I'll get it posted as quickly as I can.


	10. Chapter 10

A New Beginning.

By Jon08

Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

I have always thought that a lot is left out of the books about Dudley. What did he see when the dementors attacked him? Why did he put that cup of tea out for Harry? Did he try to change himself because of it?

Chapter 10

Mum had knitted me a jumper for Christmas; it meant more to me in some way than all the presents I had got before. It said she cared about me enough to make the effort to actually make something for me. I know she could have gone out and spent loads of money on me, the same as she and Dad had done in the past. But I must admit the best thing about this Christmas was no Marge slobbering over her favourite 'neffy poo' and no Ripper. Whilst Mum and Dad were mean to Harry because of his magic and fear of the neighbours finding out about it, Marge was just mean full stop and as for that vicious little monster of hers. I was ashamed to say I had enjoyed seeing Ripper tree Harry and keep him up there for hours. I wish Harry was here now to be enjoying Christmas with us. I hope he was enjoying it somewhere with friends.

A few days later, Justin, Lisa and I were sitting in the Happy Hippogriff, nursing butterbeers, enjoying the warmth of the roaring fire in the grate. The conversation turned to the upcoming party for the New Year, that was being held at the pub in a couple of days.

"You are coming, aren't you?" asked Lisa. "it'll be great fun.

"I'd love to, slight problem though; Mum and Dad will expect me to spend it with them. If I mention a party at a pub, they'll either want to come, or wonder why I've been going to a pub. I don't think Dad will appreciate a magical pub, still don't know about Mum, but she wouldn't come here without Dad anyway."

"No problem, just tell them that I've invited you to mine. We can get Biskit to make up the spare room, so you can stay the night. That should stop them wondering."

"Ok, thanks. I'll do that."

"Mum, Dad, Justin has invited me to his for new years!"

"But, Dudley we were going to spend it here, as a family."

"Mum, I'm 17, I need to spend time with friends as well as with family, and I'm not your little Duddykins anymore."

"Alright Dudley, I understand. But you will be careful coming home that late at night. It is still a mixed town."

"Yes Dudders, we don't want any of those freaks having anything to do with you."

"Dad. Don't call me Dudders and I haven't seen any freaks in this town to my knowledge, if they are here, they keep themselves hidden. Any way I'll be staying at Justin's, you like him, remember, Eton."

"Yes, Dudley stay friends with that boy, good family. Good connections are always important in life."

"Yeah. Thanks for that Dad, I will. Anyway I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow."

Once in my room, I tried tuning into Potterwatch, without much hope of getting a signal."

'_...Gornuk was also killed. It is believed that Muggle-born Dean Thomas and a second goblin, both believed, to have been travelling with Tonks, Cresswell and Gornuk, may have escaped. If Dean is listening, or if anyone has any knowledge of his whereabouts, his family and sisters are desperate for news._

'_Meanwhile in Gaddley, a Muggle family of five has been found dead in their home. Muggle authorities are attributing their deaths to a gas leak, but members of the Order of the Phoenix inform me that it was the killing curse-more evidence, as if were needed, of the fact that Muggle slaughter is becoming little more than a recreational sport under the new regime...'_

There was a gasp, from outside the door. I switched off the radio; there was the same creak of floorboards that I had heard before, and then the click of the bathroom lock. I was positive that someone had been listening at the door. If it had been Dad, I'm sure he would have been in here in a rage. But, what was Mum doing listening at my door, she must now that I had been listening to a magical radio programme, that was why she had gasped out, she must have heard about the Muggle killings. Why would she not talk about it? Was it my imagination that someone had been listening in? I really didn't know what to think.

The broadcast was over by the time I got back to the radio again, I'd have to catch up tomorrow from Justin.

I arrived at the Happy Hippogriff, hung up my coat and rucksack and made my way to the seat next to Justin. He was sitting next to a pretty red headed girl, and a stunningly attractive blonde woman.

"Hel... hello, are you friends of Justin's? I'm Dudley Dursley."

"Justin was just telling us, you're Harry's cousin. I'm Ginny Weasley, his girlfriend and this is my sister in law, Fleur, my brother Bill is getting us all a drink."

"Have I met Bill, I think I met some of your brothers, before the fourth year, two who gave me a sweet that grew my tongue to four foot and another about my age. I think that would have been Ron, who I'm told is Harry's friend."

"That was Fred and George; they've left school now, got their own shop in Diagon Alley. Doing very well. They got in so much trouble with Mum for that. They wanted to get you back for being a bully to Harry."

"Yeah! Well, I'm sorry for the way I behaved to Harry in the past, he proved himself the better man when he saved my life. Are your family spending the New Year here then?"

"Just Me, Mum and Dad are at home looking after Ron, he's got Spattergroit."

"And that's the story you're sticking to, eh?"

She gave me a piercing look, "what do you mean by that?"

"The raid at the ministry, three distinct Patronuses were seen, a stag, an otter and a terrier. According to Justin, that's Harry, Hermione and Ron's Patronuses. He's travelling with Harry and Hermione, doing whatever it is they're doing?" I suddenly found myself looking at the business end of a wand. "Hang on; I don't care if your family are lying to protect yourself and Harry. I'm doing the same thing here, hiding from the Death Eaters for protection. I just want Harry to be safe, and if your brother is with them, that means he's better off."

We were interrupted by the arrival of a ginger haired man with a nasty pattern of scars on his face. "Hello, you must be Dudley; Justin said you'd be joining us. I'm Bill." He handed Ginny, Justin and myself a butterbeer, a fizzing drink with a cherry in it for Fleur and had what looked like a whiskey for himself. "What have I missed, why has Ginny got her wand out? If you've been rude to her, I will be asking you to leave."

"He's been saying things about Ron and Harry. He's worked a few things out for himself. Not as dumb as Harry said he was."

"I hope you realise, that's dangerous information you've worked out. It could be a risk to our family."

"I'm at risk anyway, I'm the cousin of 'You Know Who's' greatest enemy, I don't think they'll worry about your brother if they caught me, but you can Obliviate my memory of that if you want. I have no proof, only hearsay. I'm only a muggle after all, what do I know of Patronuses. I just want Harry to be safe. He's the only cousin I've got. I don't think I'll get any cousins through my Aunt Marge, first I think she's too old, and from what Justin's told me of your world, I think the only hope she'd have is a troll, and probably a blind one at that."

"Blimey, what must she be like? A blind troll?"

"Trust me; you don't want to meet her. I hated her slobbering over me, and the vicious little pests, sorry dogs, she dragged everywhere. I rather enjoy thinking back on her comeuppance from Harry, pity she can't remember it."

"What comeuppance?"

"She was insulting his Mum and Dad; he blew her up like a balloon. I understand that accidental magic like that can happen. But I almost wish he'd done it on purpose." Our conversation was interrupted by another arrival, Lisa. She joined us all at the table and another round of introductions began.

She looked at Fleur, after she'd been introduced, "were you the Beauxbatons champion for the Triwizard tournament?"

"Oui, c'est moi. Sorry, that was me."

Lisa giggled looking at Ginny. "Sorry, I just remember your brother, Ron, asking Fleur to go to the Yule Ball with him, he looked so flustered. I don't know which answer he dreaded the most, yes or no."

Ginny laughed, "I remember him coming back to the common room after that, he looked white as a sheet. It was quite funny at the time. He went with Padma Patil in the end, Harry went with her sister Parvati, neither were impressed with them as dates if I remember. I went with Neville Longbottom, I felt sorry for him in a way when he asked me to go with him, but he was a gentleman, even if I should have worn steel toecaps in my shoes."

"I remember Padma, talking about your brother's dress robes after the ball, said it looked like they were over a century out of date. She definitely wasn't impressed with him. I think she said he had less maturity than a first year, or something along those lines. I know she didn't finish the evening with him. Left him about half way through the night."

"That's Ron alright, I remember last year, he was going out with Lavender Brown, about as subtle as a herd of centaurs. In a way, I was glad when he broke up with her. He's fancied Hermione forever, but just didn't realise it. Clueless."

The evening went well, Justin and I danced a few times with Ginny and Lisa; I even danced once with Fleur, a most disconcerting experience I felt like I should challenge Bill for her, a feeling which evaporated as soon as the dance ended. I wasn't eager to repeat the experience and limited my dances with her to just the one.

As it was nearing midnight I made my way to the bar to get a round of drinks for us all to toast in the New Year, four butterbeers, a cherry Gillywater for Fleur, and an Ogden's Firewhiskey for Bill. "1 Galleon, 11 Sickles, 17 knuts," said Alan, the barman.

I handed him 2 Galleons, "thanks. Keep the change; get yourself one in for the New Year."

I made my way back to our table, Lisa and Ginny were giggling together. Justin looked like the cat that had just caught the canary. "Boys." Said Lisa and started giggling even harder if that was possible

I looked at Justin, but he just smirked, as if he knew something I didn't. Suddenly there was the sound of a clock ticking in the bar, I looked around, but there was no clock in sight. Then the sound of bells getting ready to sound the chimes of Big Ben for the New Year, but I couldn't see any radio to broadcast it. I looked at Justin, eyes raised in query. He just whispered "magic" under his breath and left it at that.

The bells of Big Ben rang midnight and everyone raised their glasses and wished "A Happy New Year," to each other. Suddenly there was the sound of fireworks from outside the pub. "Come on you need to see these," said Ginny, "They're Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-bangs. Fred and George's own special fireworks" she dragged us all outside to see the fireworks, and I must admit they were impressive. There were dragons, unicorns and all manner of magical creatures being created by the fireworks, and they all seemed to be interacting with each other. There was a centaur firing arrows at a dragon, a lion and a unicorn fighting, it was one of the best firework displays I'd seen. I told Ginny so, she looked pleased.

As the display was ending, Bill looked at Ginny, "come on, young lady, I promised Mum I wouldn't keep you out too late, it's time for us to go."

"Ginny, please if you see Harry can you give him my best wishes if you get the chance? Thanks!" There were several loud cracks as the patrons all begin apparating home. Ginny came over, kissed Justin and I on the cheek, wished us a Happy New Year and took Bill's arm, they vanished with another loud crack.

"Happy New Year, you two," said Lisa, coming over to us, she kissed Justin on the cheek, came over to me and kissed me on the lips. I nearly fell over with shock. I think I understood the 'boys' comment from earlier in the night.

"Th... thanks. Happy New Year to you as well," I managed to stammer out. Lisa smiled at us both, turned on the spot and apparated herself back home.

Justin and I went to collect our coats and make our way to his, where I would be spending the night. I still needed an escort to his house, as not being the secret keeper; he couldn't tell me his address. He had told me that his secret keeper was professor Lupin from school, he'd been the wizard from the order that had helped move him into hiding, but that still didn't help me finding his house on my own. It was one drawback that I could see to magic, but I could live with it.

We let ourselves in to Justin's' a few minutes later and were met by Biskit, she was wearing her latest outfit. It looked like it had been made from another old pillow case, but she had done some clever needlework and was wearing what looked like a matching t-shirt and shorts. I don't think I'd seen her in the same outfit twice, since that night nearly two months ago, when we'd discussed the matter. For all I knew, she could have been wearing the same pillowcase all along and just altering it every day, but she seemed to feel very proud to be able to wear something that showed her status.

"Good morning, my Lord, Master Dudley. Can I take your coats?" She took our coats and my rucksack, "I'll be putting this in the third bedroom, and I has made it all up for you, Master Dudley, just as Master asked.

"Thank you Biskit. We'll see ourselves up. We won't need you till breakfast tomorrow. Happy New Year to you."

"Thank you Master, Happy New Year to you both as well." With a crack she vanished taking my rucksack with her.

"Where does Biskit sleep?" I asked Justin, "I know your Mum is in one room, you are in another, and you have two guest rooms, but where is Biskit's room?"

"When she first took service with our family, she made herself a room in the airing cupboard. We offered her a bedroom, but she refused, 'those were for Master, his family and friends.' Eventually we managed to persuade her to take the attic as her room, saying that could be her room. We even gave her a bed, though how she got it in there is anybody's guess. It's bigger than the hatch."

"That's easy, magic, you take it for granted in your life, but I bet Biskit is capable of a lot on her own. You've always said that house elves have powerful magic in service of their masters. It was master's wish, she have that bed in her room, she could probably have fitted an articulated lorry up there, if it was master's wish."

"Yeah, you're probably right, and reinforced the ceiling to hold it as well."

We both laughed at the idea of Biskit having a lorry in her room and hoped we hadn't given her any ideas. "I've been meaning to ask, why does she call you my Lord?"

"Since my Dad died I'm technically the 14th Baronet Fletchley and 432nd in line for the throne, stupid I know, but Biskit loves reminding me of the fact. Correctly I should be called Sir Justin Baronet, but I daren't tell her that, my lord is bad enough. It all a bit pretentious really. I would like to continue with the wizarding world if I ever get the chance"

"If my Dad found out you were a Baronet, he'd think, you were Crown Prince or something. It's something I'll keep in mind if ever I need to get on his good side in the future. He's a complete snob, thinks being a company director makes him almost royal himself. Pratt."

"Ok. But don't go telling Lisa or anybody else from the wizarding world. It means nothing there and it's not important anyway."

We stayed talking downstairs talking for a while longer and then made our way to bed. I hoped this New Year would bring a resolution to my desire to make up with Harry.

Author note: I know that Baronet is the lowest hereditary rank in the British Peerage, but Justin's rank is my own invention. No reference to any person is intended. Just wanted to give Vernon another reason to gloat about Dudley's connections.

Please review. I hope you continue to read and enjoy. Many thanks to all those who have left a review or put my story on alert.


	11. Chapter 11

A New Beginning.

By Jon08

Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

I have always thought that a lot is left out of the books about Dudley. What did he see when the dementors attacked him? Why did he put that cup of tea out for Harry? Did he try to change himself because of it?

Chapter 11

After the New Year it was back to the daily routine of school and the teachers were all trying to impress on us, the importance of our exams coming up later that year in June. I dreaded it. I hated exams, a nasty excuse for pupil torture if ever I heard one, but try to convince the teachers of that, you'd probably end up in detention till you were 30. The only high point was Lisa and I were together a lot more. Not only were we spending time together in school, but we were spending time outside school together as well. Even if it was more studying. I must admit, studying with a pretty girl certainly made it more interesting, but it still wasn't my idea of fun.

News on Potterwatch had been scarce; there was still no news of Harry or his friends. We had heard one report from 'Ridgeback' that everyone should do their best to support Harry and thwart the Death Eaters. I thought I recognised the voice and was told by Lisa and Justin, that it had been Hagrid, the half giant who'd come to collect Harry on his eleventh birthday. My first encounter with magic. Blimey, I remembered the embarrassment of that bloody pigs tail. Mum and Dad spent a fortune for me to have that 'unusual wart' removed from my bum. I was sure there was probably a write-up in some medical work about it. Thankfully my real name was never mentioned. Could you imagine that? Going to the doctor, and him saying 'ah, yes, you're the one who grew a pig's tail'. How embarrassing would that be?

I didn't understand the name 'Ridgeback' until it was explained to me that Hagrid was obsessed with dragons and even wanted one as a pet. Apparently the Norwegian Ridgeback was a breed of dragon. They even had different breeds of the things? I'd always assumed that dragons just were. I'd never given any thought to different breeds, Norwegian Ridgeback, Welsh Green, Hebridean Black, Peruvian Vipertooth, Ukrainian Ironbelly, there was countless breeds. Where were they hiding them? I hope I never met a bloody dragon. Apparently the way most muggles encountered them was as dinner. If they saw a dragon in the distance, they had their memories modified by the ministry.

As school was getting ready to close down for Easter, the workload was made even more intense by mock exams. As if it wasn't bad enough we had to sit the real ones, the ruddy teachers were making us take pretend exams to prepare us for the real torture to come. Another perfectly good holiday going to be ruined by waiting for some exam results. Pointless torture for already stressed out students. They really should arrest all bloody teachers for child abuse.

All that aside, I thought, I'd actually done well in my mock exams. At least I'd known the answers or thought I did. I hadn't had the panic that I'd had with my GCSE's whilst at Smeltings. I'd only just managed to scrape passes in them. It was only through some serious talking on Dad's part, that I'd been allowed stay on to take A levels. Hard work, friends and really wanting to achieve something seemed to be doing me some good.

During the Easter holidays, we got some real news of what was happening to Harry through Potterwatch.

"... now for a special report from Reebok, news of an exciting rescue and daring escape."

"Thank you Jordan. Luna Lovegood, Mr. Ollivander, a goblin called Griphook and I were being held in a cellar at the home of a Death Eater. One night, some new captives were brought in. Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Whilst the Death Eaters were amusing themselves upstairs by torturing Hermione, Harry managed to summon help in the form of Dobby, the free house elf. Mr. Ollivander, Luna, Griphook and I were taken by Dobby to a secret location, and Dobby went back for the others. They all escaped successfully, but unfortunately Dobby died in Harry's arms at the secret location, and is now buried where he fell. Everyone else is now in hiding at a secret location."

"Thank you Reebok. In a small aside to that it must be said there was a raid on the home of

Ministry employee, Arthur Weasley. The house was deserted, all possessions gone; the only occupant was a ghoul who'd been spelled to look like youngest son Ronald with Spattergroit. Fortunately, Ginny Weasley, the daughter had been home for Easter. So, wherever the Weasley family is now, we wish them all the best..."

Justin, Lisa and I sat in silence after hearing this broadcast. Harry was safe and had got away from serious danger.

"What I want to know," said Lisa "is how they were captured in the first place?"

"I've got one theory, Harry is one of the few people I know who uses 'You Know Who's' real name. If he'd said it, it would have attracted the attention of snatchers. They'd have taken them straight to wherever 'You Know Who' has set up headquarters. Sounds like he wasn't at home. Such a pity."

"Bloody lucky I say. The first thing he would have done is to kill Harry. Who was that Reebok? Did you recognise the voice?"

"I think it was Dean Thomas, he's a Muggleborn in Gryffindor, same year as us. Good friend of Harry, Ron and Hermione."

"I wish I could speak with him, get some firsthand news about Harry, how he is. It's worrying that he's out there doing all this dangerous stuff, and I might never get to see him again. I really wasn't best cousin in the world to him."

A few days later, the three of us were walking through the dunes just talking about what our plans were after the exams when we came across something strange. There was a small area of sand that had normal grass, with a small headstone at one end. Neatly carved into the headstone were the words;

'_Here lies Dobby_

_A Free Elf'_

"Harry was here, only a few days ago, wasn't Dobby was the house elf that died to free them all. Who would they have come here to? Who do they know in Tinworth?"

"I don't know, but I think I can guess," replied Lisa. "Bill and Fleur Weasley, Ginny was visiting them at New Year, they must live in the area."

"Do you think he could still be here, could we find him?" I asked. Justin and Lisa looked at me, obviously realising something I wasn't. "What am I missing? You've obviously realised something I haven't!"

"Remember on Potterwatch, they said everyone is in hiding at a secret location. They'll be protected under the Fidelius Charm. We could be standing in the front garden of the house; they were hiding at and never know. I'm sorry, but even in Bill and Fleur are still in Tinworth, unless they find us, they might as well be living in the moon. We could pass them on the street and not recognise them."

"But hang on, you recognise me, when we meet up, I'm protected by the same charm. How come we wouldn't recognise them?"

"It's slightly different, we first met after the charm had been cast, so I know you first as Dudley and I can talk to you about school and Harry, but if Lisa and I are talking about you and you're not there. We can only talk about you, not your relationship with Harry. It's like you stop being his cousin when you're not there. There are different things that can be protected with the charm. It's your exact location and relationship to Harry that's protected, but it could have been cast so that nobody would notice you at all. You could have danced naked in the middle of Trafalgar Square and no-one would even notice you."

"I never realised it was that complex. Could it make Mum and Dad forget they hate Magic and Harry?"

"No! Feelings can't be touched by the charm. You'd need to erase all their memories of Harry and Magic and put new ones there. Basically rebuild their personality from the bottom up. I wouldn't recommend it."

"Me neither. They might change for the worst. At least I know that if I don't mention magic or Harry in front of Dad, he's reasonable. I'm still not sure of Mum though, I'm almost positive she's been listening to Potterwatch outside my bedroom door. But I can't prove it. She's not said anything that bad about magic either. Whenever she calls some witch or wizard a freak in my hearing, I almost get the feeling it's done for Dad's benefit. The venom behind her words has gone. I don't want to risk anything by asking her either, in case I'm wrong." We sat by Dobby's grave, contemplating the fact that we might have been close to Harry and not known it. It was frustrating, if only I'd known, when he was here.

"I remember Dobby from school. During one meeting of the DA, he appeared in the middle of the classroom and warned us that Umbridge was coming to get us. It was almost comical in its way. He couldn't refer to Umbridge by name, couldn't tell us anything definite, but he got his meaning across. He looked almost comical, wearing a tea cosy on his head, odd socks and a jumper he'd knitted himself. He tried to punish himself for warning us. It seems to be a trait of house elves, when we first got Biskit, she would punish herself if she thought she'd done something wrong. It was only when we told her that she was forbidden to punish herself that it stopped."

"I remember just before 6th year, when Dumbledore came to collect Harry, he told him he'd inherited his godfather's house, but there was some dispute and he called a house elf. It was the most disagreeable thing I've ever seen. Didn't want to belong to the Potter brat, but Mistress Bellatrix. Dumbledore told Harry to give him an order, and Harry said 'creature, shut up!'"

There was a loud crack and there was a house elf in an old pillowcase, with a gold locket around his neck, standing on the grave in front of us. "Who has summoned Kreacher? Kreacher belongs to Master Harry, where is he?"

"I'm sorry creature, I think that was me; I was telling my friends of when I first saw you. I didn't know it would call you."

"How are you calling me? Kreacher is bound to follow orders from family of his Master only. Master Harry has no wizard family. Only mud... muggles."

"I'm sorry, but I'm his muggle cousin, but I have this," I produced the wand I'd been given on the first day. "It allows me to see things hidden by magic. It must also make me able to call you. Could you please tell me do you know where Harry is?"

"Kreacher has not seen Master Harry, since he left for Ministry of Magic. That night master's house was invaded by servants of 'You Know Who'. Kreacher was forced to throw them out. He has not heard from Master since then. If Master Harry were to call for Kreacher he could go to him, but Kreacher cannot find Master without being called."

"I'm sorry too. We were talking about Dobby and I mentioned the first time I met you. You didn't want to serve Harry, what changed?"

"Master Harry was kind to Kreacher, gave him his own Black family heirloom for himself, Master Regulus' locket." He placed his hand reverently on the locket hanging at his chest. "Asked Kreacher how Master Regulus had died, Kreacher could tell Master Harry as he was not part of family. Master Regulus had only forbidden Kreacher to tell family."

"Thank you Kreacher! I hope you find out about Harry soon. I worry about him as well. I understand I can't give you orders, but if you see Harry would you tell him that Dudley says he's sorry, and wants to make peace?"

"When Kreacher next see's Master Harry, he will pass your message on if he can Master Dudley. Now Kreacher must be getting back to Master's house." With that he vanished with a loud crack.

"Blimey, he's changed his attitude. He didn't want to serve the Potter brat, now it's all Master Harry. Everybody seems to like him, except Mum and Dad."

Back to school and the work really began to pile up. On top of that we were encouraged to write to the universities we wished to go to after school. The results of our mock exams would be included in with these to give some indications of our results. I was surprised to find I had done rather well in my mock exams. The teachers were genuinely pleased with me and were encouraging me to go on to university.

I had a problem with it all though, how could I write to them and give a return address for the replies, it was protected. I couldn't tell anyone where I lived even my new best friend or girlfriend. Justin had a similar problem. Our reticence in filling out the forms was noted and for the first time we were both sent to see the Headmaster, Mr. Prewett.

"What seems to be the problem boys? Don't you want to go to university next year? Why aren't you filling out any applications?"

I decided to be blunt. "Our addresses are secret Sir, we can't put them in writing or tell each other or even say them out loud."

"I see, Fidelius Charm eh?"

We both looked at him in surprise. "Are you a wizard Sir?" I asked.

"Squib. I'm related to Molly Weasley. Used to be an accountant, got into teaching several years ago. Now I'm the head here. Can't do any magic myself, but I know all about it. Write your applications, putting the school address down in place of your own; I'll get one of the other teachers to enchant it so the universities are unaware of any discrepancy."

"There are wizard teachers at the school?"

"Just the one, and I can't tell you who it is, the Fidelius charm again, they were also a muggleborn, but your problem will be sorted out."

We thanked him and left the office. I looked at Justin, "any idea, who it is?"

"None. If they were muggleborn, the name wouldn't necessarily be known to me, it could be anything. If the teacher was female and married as well, the name would have changed then. I've never noticed any teachers doing anything suspiciously magical either. But there must be wizards working all over this town; there's the librarian, the newsagent and someone in the taxi office so there must be more."

"True, but it's fun to speculate."

From my reading of wizard history and the list of universities available I had decided on three I wanted to apply to, all because they were near wizard locations. I knew about that side of my family history now and even if Harry wasn't ready to forgive me, I didn't want to give up that side of my family. It might provide me some leeway in the future

Author Note: Ron mentions his Mum having a second cousin or something who's an accountant in Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 6. It's a reasonable hypothesis, that he could have changed jobs, after all Ron didn't know that much.

Please review. I am grateful to those who have already done so. Also thank you to those who have put it as a favourite. I hope you will continue to enjoy and Dudley and myself will not disappoint you in further chapters.


	12. Chapter 12

A New Beginning.

By Jon08

Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

I have always thought that a lot is left out of the books about Dudley. What did he see when the dementors attacked him? Why did he put that cup of tea out for Harry? Did he try to change himself because of it?

Chapter 12

The run up to exams was exhaustive, but I had some good news. Plymouth University, University of West of England, and the University of York had all offered me a provisional place based on my Mock Exam results. I knew that the wizard villages of Tinworth, Godric's Hollow, and Upper Flagley, were part wizarding villages and they were possibly near to these universities. I wanted that connection.

I received invitations from the universities to attend open days, to look around and see the facilities that were offered. I was going to do my own research at the same time.

It was Friday May 1st and I was looking around Bristol at the town and facilities on offer at 'West of England', but I had other plans too. Mum had given me some money; I had told her that it was two days that I would be looking around. I was booked overnight into a hotel in Bristol. I'd checked a few things out with Justin and I had my own plans for the next day. I was going to try and see Godric's Hollow, the town where Harry had been born. Where 'You Know Who' had killed my aunt and uncle.

The next morning I checked out of the hotel and made my way to the High Street and took out the magic card I had been given months ago, and hoped my plan would work.

There was a loud bang and pulling up was a large triple decker bus. I climbed aboard. The driver an elderly wizard, turned round on his seat, his glasses were so thick, it didn't inspire much confidence in his driving ability.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Where are you going to?"

"Godric's Hollow, Please!"

"That's 3 Sickles, 12 Knuts, sorry I can't offer you breakfast, but we've got no conductor, ever since they arrested Stan."

"That's fine, thanks, I already ate." I handed him the money and sat myself down in one of the comfy looking armchairs that were around the bus.

"Won't be too long, just gotta take Madam Marsh home first. She's not feeling well you see." With a bang the bus was off, the chair I was sitting in flew towards the back of the bus and hit the pole at the back. I grabbed hold to avoid being thrown off. With another loud bang, the bus came to a stop and I was flung to the front of the bus. The driver climbed out of his seat and proceeded to assist an elderly witch off with her luggage, a large trunk and a carryon bag. I got up and assisted him with the trunk; it wasn't the sort of thing you could manoeuvre about a bus on your own. "Thanks," he puffed, making himself a cup of tea and handing me one. "Godric's Hollow next, why you going there. Don't get me wrong I'm just curious, business has been downright boring lately, no-one seems to be travelling, what with 'You Know Who' causing all this bother."

"Just doing some family research and looking around the area. My cousin was born here."

"So who's your cousin then?"

"Harry Potter."

"Really, he used the night bus himself a couple of times. Went one night from Surrey to London, and another with a load of people to Hogsmeade, right bossy lot. Course that when I had Stan, then so I didn't see him much. Then Stan goes and plays his mouth off and get carted off to Azkaban for being a Death Eater. Always were an idiot when it came to talking to girls." He put his cup down and went back to the driving seat. I hastily finished my tea and put the cup next to his, and took a seat.

With a bang, we were off again. I looked through the window, and we seemed to be travelling along a motorway at a reckless speed. Other vehicles were shoved out of our way and then as we went past, they moved back into lane as if they hadn't noticed us. I was glad the bus was enchanted that way, they way the driver was driving; we would have caused several accidents. There was another loud bang, the scenery blurred and we were in a small village with old fashioned houses, and modern buildings alongside them.

"Godric's Hollow."

"Thanks, if I can ask how late does this bus run. I'll need to get home later."

"It runs all night, but sometimes if we get busy it can take a while to get to where you're going. Course no chance of that at the moment." He turned the bus off and pulled his wand from the middle of the wheel. Come on, I'll show you round the village, nobody calling the bus at the moment. He put his wand in his pocket. "Follow me, my name's Ernie, Ernie Prang."

"Dudley Dursley."

"Don't recognise the name, you muggleborn?"

"No complete muggle."

"How'd you call the bus then, you need a wand?"

I showed him the card, "it works like a wand in some ways, allows me to see things hidden by magic, and gives some sort of protection, from what I've been told. Today was the first time I tried to use it like a wand. I was told how to call the Knight Bus by a friend. I hoped it would work and it did."

"Lucky you, that's some serious magic, I'd keep the card in your hand. You'll need it to see a few things." We walked into the village square, "can you see that?"

There was the normal sort of war memorial, commemorating the dead in both world wars. As I looked at it, it changed. There was a statue of three people. A man who looked remarkably like an older version of Harry, someone who looked vaguely similar to Mum were holding a baby. I reached into my backpack for my camera. I'd taken a few pictures of the university and campus, but I definitely wanted this.

Ernie looked at my camera, "is that muggle, it won't take the right memorial, pass it here." He waved his wand over my camera, muttering under his breath. The camera gave off a blue flash. "Here it'll take wizard photos now. You'll need to have them developed at a wizard establishment, but that's not a problem. There's several of them."

I took the photo and Ernie led me to what looked like a bombed out house. I looked at him. "That's where your Aunt and Uncle died and 'You Know Who' tried to kill Harry." I took a couple of photos of the house. "Touch the gate," Ernie said to me. I did and suddenly there was a badly graffitied notice.

'_On this spot, on the night of 31 October 1981,_

_Lily and James Potter lost their lives._

_Their son, Harry, remains the only wizard ever_

_to have survived the Killing Curse._

_This house, invisible to Muggles, has been left_

_in its ruined state as a monument to the Potters_

_and as a reminder of the violence_

_that tore apart their family.'_

I took a couple of photos of the notice, and Ernie told me that the next stop was the graveyard. There was a small grave with what had probably been a wreath on it.

'_James Potter, born 27 March 1960, died 31 October 1981_

_Lily Potter, born 30 January 1960, died 31 October 1981_

_The last Enemy that shall be destroyed is death.'_

I took a couple of photos of the gravestone. "Is there anywhere I could buy a wreath or some flowers for the grave?"

Ernie gave a glance around, waved his wand and a wreath of roses materialised on the grave.

"Thank you," I said, tears in my eyes. "Mum never talked about her sister, only to insult her or abuse Harry about them."

"C'mon," Ernie said, "it's lunchtime and I'm hungry." We headed back towards the bus.

"Do we have to go back to the bus, is there anywhere here we can get lunch. I feel like I owe you something for helping me out and showing me round?" we made our way back to the village square and a small cafe where I purchased sandwiches and tea for myself and Ernie. We talked about the first time Harry had used the Knight Bus, and I related how he had blown Aunt Marge up, and left the house along with his trunk.

"We took him to the Leaky Cauldron; he'd said his name was Neville something. Quite a surprise to us to be met by Fudge, the Minister, and get told our passenger was Harry Potter. At the time we thought it a bit strange him being that Sirius Black was out to kill him that he was out unsupervised."

"Hang on, Sirius Black trying to kill him; I thought he was Harry's godfather?"

"It was all a misunderstanding; Black had been imprisoned without trial for mass muggle killing and the murder of Peter Pettigrew. The authorities thought he was a follower of 'You Know Who'; he was given a posthumous pardon after he died at the ministry defending Harry and some friends from a load of Death Eaters. Pettigrew's family were most upset when the posthumous Order of Merlin was stripped from him. Of course he wasn't really dead, they only found his finger, he cut it off in his escape." Ernie pulled a pipe from his pocket and proceeded to smoke it. Without lighting it. It lit itself. Magic never failed to amaze me.

We had been talking for a while when Ernie pulled his wand from his pocket, "duty calls, do you want to stay here longer or are you ready to go home?"

"No thanks'. I think I've seen all I would like to, could you drop me back off in Bristol, I'll go back home by the train, that way Mum and Dad won't know I've used the Knight Bus."

"No problem, just got to make a pickup in Birmingham first. Then I'll get you to Bristol." We picked up an elderly wizard on his way to Gaddley, and then I was dropped off in Bristol by the railway station.

I checked my camera to see how many photos I'd taken, I still had a couple left on the film, so took a couple of tourist shots of Bristol and boarded the train for home.

It was half past four when I got back to Tinworth, so I made my way to the nearest photo processing shop with my camera. The assistant removed the film from my camera and looked at it, "do you want standard processing or the special?"

"If by special, you mean magical, I'll take that please, though some of the photo's are muggle ones."

"Never had a mixed film before, It won't be ready till Monday though, I can't tell you the exact cost as it depends on how many of each type of photo you've got. Shouldn't cost more than a Galleon though, that's what it'll be for a full film of magical photos, so it should be less."

"No problem, the name's, Dursley, I'll come back Monday evening, if that's ok?"

"No problem, Mr. Dursley, I'll see you Monday. Did you hear the big news today? 'You Know Who's' dead. Harry Potter fulfilled the prophecy and finished him off in the early hours."

"That's brilliant, I've been out for the day, so heard no news. Anything else you can tell me about it?"

"Not much, heard a little on the radio earlier. Potterwatch came on with no password, broadcasting direct from Hogwarts. There's been fatalities on our side. Didn't catch the names had to come to work. But apparently it's been broadcasting the same message all day, from what I've been told."

"Thanks, I'll go home and tune in."

As I walked in the door, Dad called out, "Dudley, your friend Justin phoned he's been trying to get hold of you all day, but you didn't answer your mobile."

"Thanks Dad, I'll go upstairs, put my phone on charge and call him from there."

I quickly went to my room and retrieved my mobile from my backpack and dialled Justin's number. I must have been in some bad signal area all day, because it hadn't rung and the charge was full. "Justin, it's Dudley, you've been calling me all day apparently."

"Yes, have you heard the news? Harry did it."

"Only just, I've been in Godric's Hollow most of the day, the photo shop manager told me when I dropped my film off for processing. There's been fatalities, but he couldn't give me any names."

"Well, some won't mean much to you, but there was Remus Lupin, my old professor, his wife, Fred Weasley, those names should be known to you. I think you said you'd met Fred, one of Ron's brothers."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he was one of the two that gave me those bloody toffees. But that's terrible; he wasn't much older than us was he?"

"Only 20. The youngest was Colin Creevey; he was a year younger than us. He shouldn't have been there, he was muggleborn and underage. He must have got the message on his DA Galleon and got to Hogsmeade somehow. Lisa went. But I know she's fine, bit bruised and battered but otherwise ok. She's sent me a message via Galleon. Can you come round to mine later, were going to go to the Happy Hippogriff, there's apparently a celebration going on there."

"I'll have to meet you at the Hippogriff then; I can't find your house remember."

"That's solved. I live at 124 Ravenclaw Road; I'll explain later, how I can tell you. See you about seven."

"I'll be there. See you later."

Over dinner that evening I told Mum and Dad that I was going to Justin's and we'd be going to a party, he'd had some good news regarding some friends and I might be back late.

"Ok, Dudley, don't get too drunk will you?"

"Mum, I'm not old enough to drink yet remember!"

"Don't play the innocent here. I know you've been out to a local pub, and I know you used to drink back home in Surrey. So I'm just telling you to be careful about how much you drink, ok."

"Ok Mum. I promise to stay sober."

I left the house and without thinking turned right and headed down the road, reached the end and turned left. Ten minutes later I was standing outside 124 Ravenclaw Road, Justin's. The first time I'd ever got there on my own. What had changed with the magic?

I knocked on the door and was greeted by Biskit, who was now wearing what looked like a patchwork dress, made from several different pieces of material, each one clashing with the next. "Greetings Master Dudley, please come on in, Master Justin is expecting you." She led me into the lounge after taking my coat.

Justin and his mother were listening to the radio. "The new Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt is asking all muggleborns in hiding to remain so until they are either contacted by their secret keeper or a member of Ministry staff. All wizards who are able are asked to assist in the rebuilding of Hogwarts, which has suffered major damage. Apparition points have been made available in Hogsmeade, and the Hogwarts express is running daily from platform 9¾ at 11 o'clock. The news once again. 'You Know Who' is dead, killed by a backlash from his own killing spell as he tried to kill Harry Potter for the third time at around 6 o'clock this morning. There are some Death Eaters still at large, but the ministry is doing its best to bring them to justice..."

Justin turned the radio off. "You've heard most of the important stuff there. They tend to repeat a lot. The list of fatalities etc, there's going to be a service of memorial is going to be held in Hogsmeade at the end of June. Now, I know you're wondering how I can tell you where I live. Our secret keeper was professor Remus Lupin, he died in the battle, and so anyone he told the secret to has also become a secret keeper and can pass the information along. Dedalus Diggle was your secret keeper and he's still alive, so your secret is still safe."

"That makes sense, but is there a way to remove the charm? I mean I don't want to live in a secret location for the rest of my life. If there is, does it work the same way for you, now your secret keeper's dead?"

"I know it can be undone, but not how. I would have learned the Fidelius charm this year at Hogwarts and how to undo it, but that's no use to me now."

All of us then left to head for the Happy Hippogriff to join the celebrations there.

Author Note: the universities I have mentioned are real universities in England, but no reference is inferred that they do the courses I think Dudley will need. Any similarities between 'my' universities and the real ones is coincidental. The quotations from Godric's Hollow, Ernie Prang, Madam Marsh, and the Knight Bus are the work of the wonderful JK Rowling. No infringement of copyright is intended.

Please review: this has got to be the quickest chapter I have written to date, it just seemed to happen. I don't think this speed of update will continue, but we can dream. I hope you continue to enjoy the story and the direction it's heading. I do envisage a meeting between Harry and Dudley, but that will be a couple of chapters yet I think.


	13. Chapter 13

A New Beginning.

By Jon08

Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

I have always thought that a lot is left out of the books about Dudley. What did he see when the dementors attacked him? Why did he put that cup of tea out for Harry? Did he try to change himself because of it?

Chapter 13

On Monday after school, I collected my photographs and paid 12 Sickles. I was eager to see the first wizard photos I'd taken and the results, so I was looking at them as I walked home. As I walked in the front door, I hastily struggled to hide the photos in my backpack, but was too slow.

"What are you hiding Dudley?" Mum asked.

"Er... nothing. Just some pictures I took of the university."

"Not now Mum, I've got homework to do."

"Well, just let me look at them and you go start on your homework."

"No it's ok Mum, I'll show you later." At least I could get upstairs and remove the wizard photos.

"I am quite capable of looking at some pictures on my own. You can explain some of them to me later," with that she took the packet from my hand. "I'll call you later for tea. Now go mad do your homework. I want you to pass those exams."

I looked back at her and headed slowly up the stairs. Ok, I'd find out her attitude to magic soon enough, either she'd flip her lid and perhaps throw me out, or... I really didn't know what else could happen...

I retrieved my phone from the backpack and dialled Justin. "Justin it's Dudley, I may be in trouble!"

"Why? What's happened? What have you done?"

"You know I went to see Bristol to see that university, well the second day was playing tourist of a sort. I took the Knight Bus to Godric's Hollow and with the help of the driver; Ernie took some wizard photos of the area. Mum saw me looking at them and she's got them now. I have no idea how she's going to react. I may find myself homeless."

"Surely it won't be that bad? You think she's been listening in on Potterwatch sometimes. So she can't be that bad?"

"Problem is, I think Dad is also home, and if he see's those wizard shot's, it's out on my ass. His attitude is still the same. I don't think a day has past when he's not ranted about 'ruddy freaks' and their 'unnatural ways'. If he gets hold of them, well I might not make it out of here alive."

"You really think that, you want me to come round?"

"You can't, remember the Fidelius charm. You don't know my address or how to get here."

"I'll catch a taxi, I'm coming round and I'm bringing my wand."

"Ok, but keep your wand out of sight unless necessary, I don't want any trouble if we don't need it. Just say we are going to help each other revise. That'll be believable. See you shortly." I sat in the bedroom looking despondently out the window, hoping that Justin would arrive before the trouble began.

A taxi pulled up outside and Justin got out and paid. I ran to the stairs, but Dad had answered the door before me. "Hello Mr. Dursley, I'm here to revise with Dudley."

"He's upstairs." Dad said moving aside to admit Justin. "Dudley, it's Justin!" he called up.

"Thanks' Dad! Just come up Justin." Justin came up the stairs and we went to my room and closed the door behind us.

"No extreme reaction from your Dad, so I imagine either your mother either hasn't found the offending pictures yet. Or not told him if she has."

There was a knock on the door, "Dudley can we talk about something?" She sounded like she was trying to hold back tears. I looked at Justin; he had his wand in his hand. I opened the door slightly; her eyes looked a little red, as if she'd been crying to herself. I opened the door wider to let her in. No getting out of this I needed to know. Mum entered the room and noticed Justin there with his wand pointing at her. She swallowed loudly, "Hello Justin, I see you've been keeping secrets from us like Dudley. Dudley, how long have you known that Justin was a wizard?"

That sounded encouraging, no outcry, just a little shocked. "Since the second time I saw him. He saw me reading the 'Daily Prophet' and asked me if I was a wizard too!"

"What's the Daily Profit?"

"It's Prophet, as in prophecy and it's a wizard newspaper."

"How long have you been reading newspapers and where have you bought a wizard one?"

"From the newsagent's. They're in plain sight if you look properly." Justin reached into his bag, rummaged around and from the bottom, pulled out his copy of today's paper. Handing it quietly to Mum.

She looked at the 'foreign language' paper in her hands. "What language is this in? I didn't know you spoke any foreign languages?" I removed the wand from my pocket and handed it to Mum, nodding to the paper. With the wand in her hand, she looked at the paper again. "Oh!" she dropped the paper on the floor, her face going white.

"Mum, you need to read this, it's family news."

'The Boy Who Lived 2. You Know Who 0.'

'If you haven't heard the news, what rock have you been hiding under for the last two days? Once again, the worst criminal in our world is DEAD, defeated by Harry Potter in the early hours of Saturday morning. After a devastating battle in which the Hogwarts staff, older students and member's of 'the Order of The Phoenix' battled Death Eaters, Giants, Werewolves and Dementors, the final battle took place as a duel between Harry Potter and You Know Who.

The fact that Harry Potter had survived came as a surprise to everyone present at the battle as previously 'He Who Must Not Be Named' had claimed to have killed him attempting to flee the school. He had called all the staff and pupils forward to witness his triumph. Hagrid, the half giant friend of Harry was carrying what appeared to be Harry's Body in his arms. Neville Longbottom a long time friend of Harry charged the Death Eater ranks and was stunned by a curse. He was put in a body bind curse, and had the Hogwarts sorting hat forced upon his head to change his house allegiance, from Gryffindor to Slytherin. in a display of Gryffindor like bravery he pulled the sword of Godric Gryffindor from the sorting hat and cut the head off 'You Know Who's' snake familiar.

Battle was joined again between Death Eaters and what some sources have come to be calling 'Dumbledore's Army'. It seemed as if everyone was under some kind of magical protection, the spells of the Death Eaters, even down to the killing curse would not work on their opponents.

All fighting on both sides stopped though when a familiar voice cast a shield charm and suddenly there was Harry Potter shedding his invisibility cloak. He challenged 'You Know Who' to a duel tormenting him by using his old Muggle birth name of Tom Riddle. In a thrilling display of wand work, Harry potter triumphed, disarming 'You Know Who' whilst he was casting the Killing Curse which rebounded and killed 'You Know Who'.

In a later interview 'The Boy Who Lived' said that he owed his victory to several others, including Albus Dumbledore, Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley and surprisingly Severus Snape...'

Mum dropped the paper as if bitten. "Mum! What's wrong?"

"How was he? He... that fellow Snape involved? I remember that awful boy from when we were children. It was him who first took Lily from me."

This was news to me. Mum had never mentioned knowing any wizards before. Justin had a perplexed look on his face as well; he couldn't understand what connection there could be between my Mum and professor Snape. From what he had told me, Snape had been one of the most prejudiced teachers at the school. "Tell me how you know him Mum."

"It was when my sister, Lily, was about 10; we were playing in a park. Lily was swinging higher and higher, I know now that it was her magic manifesting, but then it was frightening. A strange boy who lived in the rougher area of town told her she was a witch and they started to become friends, talking about Hogwarts and magic and how Lily was a witch. One day I called her a freak when he had caused a tree branch to fall on me. I don't think I ever spoke to Lily properly after that. I always called her 'freak' and tormented her about her difference. At the end of her 6th year, she came home from school and never mentioned Severus Snape again. Our parents were a little pleased about that, they'd never been particularly enamoured of him, he was a little creepy and came from the worst part of the town. After Lily's last year she was all for James Potter, married him and moved away. I refused to go to the wedding, I was invited. I was also told about Harry's birth, but I threw the letter away. Then one day, Harry was on my doorstep with a letter from Dumbledore. He was all I had of Lily. I hated him because he reminded me of her, but at the same time he was all I had left of her. I was angry that she'd been killed and just forgotten and Harry had just been dumped on us." She sniffed, and let out a long sigh. "I couldn't forgive the wizard world for that, but I knew you were getting information from that radio. I saw it one day in your room and realised it had to be magical. No tuning dial, no aerial. So I listened in sometimes, and today I saw your photos! Where did you go to get them? I never knew where Lily and James lived! I never knew there was a memorial to them," she sniffed again, "or that the magic world even cared."

"Mum, I think you should finish reading the article. You might learn some more..."

'Snape, a man he accused last year of the murder of Albus Dumbledore, his predecessor as Head of Hogwarts. It is his contention that this murder was what he says is called 'a mercy killing' by muggle authorities, but still looked on as murder. Dumbledore was dying from a curse and knew he would die within the year, he made Snape promise to kill him as an act of mercy rather than allow a fellow student of Harry Potter commit an act of murder.

Potter further claims he has proof in the memories of Snape that one of the reasons that he became Head of Hogwarts was to protect the students. Madame Pomphrey, school healer also stated that on several occasions Snape had given her potions to help students that had been badly injured in detentions with the Carrows, although Snape told her to keep quiet about this at the time.

Potter stated that Snape had arranged for him to find the Sword of Godric Gryffindor, when it was most needed in the quest to destroy 'You Know Who.' 'He led me to it using a Patronus, which was a doe, the same as my mother's had been. He had loved her quietly all his life.' Potter also stated he would be trying to get a posthumous Order of Merlin for his old potions master.'

Mum looked hard at me. "When did you start wanting to know more about Harry and Magic? You always used to follow mine and your Dad's lead in your attitude towards him."

"When he saved my life from those dementors. I saw what I had been like, a bully, a terrible cousin to him. We should have been best friends, and you told me he was worthless, a freak. I believed you. That experience made me start to question everything you had told me. I realised that Harry was a better person than me. If it had been the other way around and I was the one who could have saved his life at that point, I would have run away."

Mum looked at me, as if seeing me for the first time. "I never knew you felt like that. Although I was proud of you when you told Harry he wasn't a waste of space."

"Mum, there's more to it than that. I've been trying to get in touch with Harry for months now. I sent him a birthday card, a late one I know, but I tried to apologise to him. I don't think he got it though. I also asked some friends of his from school to talk to him when they went back, but he didn't return in September. All this year, he's been risking his life on some brave quest to finally avenge Aunt Lily and Uncle James and we've been hiding here. Safe and sound. When we're finally allowed to go home I want to try and find him, I want to say I'm sorry. I'm going to try and be the cousin I should have been all our lives."

"Petunia, dinner's burning!" came a bellow from downstairs.

"Coming Vernon," she called back down the stairs. "Justin would you like to join us for tea, just hide your wand and don't mention magic to Vernon! Dudley hide those wizard photos but bring the rest down with you!" With that she went downstairs to salvage the dinner.

Justin quickly put his wand away in his bag. "Well that wasn't the reaction you were expecting!"

"No, but at least I know her feelings about it. Dad's never going to change though. There isn't a single day that goes by when he doesn't complain about the bloody freaks and all the inconvenience that they've put us through. He can't seem to see that we deserved to have been left to the mercy of the Death Eaters. I know if I'd been treated like he had all his life, I wouldn't have cared what happened to us."

"Dudley, Justin, dinner!" called Mum from the bottom of the stairs. We slowly went down to dinner.

Dad gave me a fierce look over his moustache, "just what you been saying to upset your mother. You've not become involved with any of these bloody freaks have you?"

"Now. Now Vernon, nothing of the kind." She looked at me as if to say, let me deal with this. "I was just all emotional over some photographs Dudley took. Photos of a university he could be going to. Our little boy is growing up. He'll soon be going into the world on his own. Dudley show your father the pictures of the campus." I handed the photos to Dad as we sat down.

Conversation over dinner was nonexistent as Mum looked apprehensively at me about the photos, obviously hoping I'd removed the wizard ones. Dad was shuffling through the pictures, sometimes frowning, sometimes looking impressed. It was hard to judge what he was thinking about.

As Mum began clearing away after dinner, dad looked at me. "Nice enough place Dudley, but don't think much of the student accommodation. It's a bit small. You might want to let us help you with that. Can't have our young man in such basic conditions, eh. I mean I want my successor to Grunnings to have the best at university."

I looked at Dad, I still hadn't told him about my choices in this matter and now wasn't the time, I definitely wasn't going to work for him at Grunnings. But I decided to put one point forward. "No Dad, I don't want any help from you in that way. I want to experience the whole of university life, including the accommodation. I want to be a normal student. If I'm living somewhere else I'll miss out on the interaction with other students. Making new friends is all part of the process. I've learnt that here. I've made friends with Justin and some others even met a girl I like. I don't want to miss out on that at university."

"Who's the girl Dudley? Is it that Lisa who's been here a couple of times with you and Justin? Not sure I approve. Doesn't seem our sort, if you know what I mean?"

"No Dad, I don't, Lisa is a perfectly nice girl, attends our school. Her brother, Richard, is a police officer at Tintagel police station."

"Oh! Police in the family, good that. Always pays to have the police on your side."

"I wouldn't count on that Dad; she threatened to have me arrested if I wasn't the perfect gentleman to her. Of course I have been, but the threat was there."

"I should bloody well hope you have been the perfect gentleman. Always brought you up to be."

Justin and I made our excuses and left the table to continue 'our revision. Justin sat back down in my room. "Your Dad definitely still prejudiced then. What are your plans anyway? I know you want to go into social work and I can understand your reasons why. But how will you break that news and your reasons to him."

"Don't know yet, haven't worked those details out. There was a knock at the door, "come in!" Mum came in with some juice and a couple of glasses.

"I thought you might like this while you revise; tell me Dudley how did you get to this village where the monument is to Lily?"

"I took the Knight Bus from Bristol."

"Night bus, you mean you went overnight?"

"No! K-night Bus Mum, as in knight in shining armour. Do you have that card that we were given when we first arrived?"

"I'll go and get it." She quickly left the room and came back with a plate of biscuits. She took the card from a pocket in her dress and handed it to me. I handed it to Justin, who took his wand from his bag and made a few passes over it with his wand and handed it back to Mum. She looked at me with a puzzled expression.

"Have you ever noticed anything odd when you've been using that card to pay for groceries or get money from the cash machines?"

"Well I did wonder that I was never asked to enter a number, but I assumed that was because it was a new type of card. I've never seen one like it before. I've never been asked to sign anything either in the shops."

"That's because of magic Mum. If you hold the card in your hand it show's you things hidden by magic. The local newsagent stocks the Daily Prophet newspaper, but all you probably noticed is a foreign language paper. The local library has an entire selection of magical books and periodicals, but you need to be holding the card to see everything. If you would like to go to Godric's Hollow I'll make some enquiries about cost and get back to you tomorrow."

"Thank you Dudley, I would like that." She left, leaving Justin and I alone in the room.

Please review. I thoroughly enjoy reading your reviews of my story and I hope you continue to enjoy it. This chapter just seemed to happen. Dudley picked up the photos and well everyone knows how inquisitive mothers are. I'll update as quickly as I can.


	14. Chapter 14

A New Beginning.

By Jon08

Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

I have always thought that a lot is left out of the books about Dudley. What did he see when the dementors attacked him? Why did he put that cup of tea out for Harry? Did he try to change himself because of it?

Chapter 14

Dinner had been a mild disaster, I'd tried to cook a meal for Mum, Dad and I. Mum was out for the day, the excuse was shopping in the nearby shops of Plymouth, for my birthday, but she was really visiting Godric's Hollow. Seeing the memorials to her sister. I'd volunteered to cook us a meal, I was going to need the practice for when I went to university next year. The rice had been overcooked and far too much of it. Enough to feed my entire year at school. The meat was overcooked and slightly burned. Dad moaned about the bloody foreign food I had cooked and how it would upset his ulcer. I think Mum will kill me when she sees the mess I've made of her kitchen, and the saucepans. We would need a hammer and chisel to clean those up; apart from the one that I'd set on fire. That was in the bin. As I was preparing to clear up the remains of mine and Dad's meals and start on clearing up, there was the sound of the key turning in the lock.

Mum walked in with three or four large carrier bags and an exhausted look on her face. She collapsed on the sofa, and I quickly handed her a cup of tea. "Do you want something to eat Mum?"

"I wouldn't Petunia," rumbled Dad, "can't cook proper food, just foreign muck and then he bloody burnt it."

"Vernon. Now. It was his first attempt! Yes, thank you Dudley, I would enjoy something to eat."

I quickly laid up a tray knowing that would annoy Dad as well. He was always one for 'proper place for meals is at the table', reheated the curry in the microwave and brought it through to Mum. She looked apprehensively at it for a few seconds and began to eat with little enthusiasm. She amazed me though that she ate the lot, no refusing 'to eat this disgusting muck' as Dad had done. "That was nice Dudley, thank you. I think you need some cookery lessons though. If you're going to feed yourself properly at university, I don't want you to be one of those students that lives on tinned beans, beer and pizza."

"You can't have liked that Petunia. It was inedible."

"Vernon. Shut up. For a first effort that was very good. I've slightly spoiled Dudley all these years; he's never been taught how to cook properly. I don't want him to be completely useless in the kitchen like you. I swear you can't make a cup of tea without the instructions to hand. Dudley will be going to university next year and I want him to be able to cope. At least his cousin can cook and clean, that's all he ever did for us."

I looked hard at Mum, she had never mentioned Harry to Dad in the whole year we'd been here, and this was almost like an apology about the way he'd been treated.

"Look here petunia; you're not defending that freak are you? Ungrateful little brat that he was, sponging off us for years. I'm glad he's gone, abandoning us here in the middle of bloody nowhere."

"Vernon Dursley, you will kindly not refer to my nephew in that tone of voice again. I have come to realise that we have treated him abominably over the years. If I thought it would do any good, I would report us to social services for child abuse. But what's past is past. I can only hope he will find it in himself to forgive us."

"Blimey Mum, I've never heard you talk like that!"

"And you never would have Dudley if I hadn't found some things out recently. Now Vernon, you will thank Dudley for cooking dinner and you will never talk about Harry in that tone of voice again."

Dad looked at Mum as if he had never seen her before in his life. "Thanks Dudders," he mumbled.

I decided to leave them to their conversation, took the tray from Mum and went to the kitchen to attempt to clean up the mess I'd made. The one saucepan was still half full of rice, and the other had burnt curry, nearly two centimetres thick on the bottom. I decided to leave them till last. I'd washed up all the dirty plates and cutlery and stacked them away when there was a loud 'crack' from the front of the house. The front doorbell rang.

I left the kitchen just as Mum was letting Dedalus Diggle into the house. "How nice to see you again Mr. Diggle. I assume you've come to tell us the good news."

Dedalus looked at my mum in a wary way. He pulled his wand from his pocket and pointed it at Mum. "Who are you and what have you done with Mrs. Dursley?"

Mum looked hard at the wand pointing at her face and swallowed, I am Petunia Dursley nee Evans, sister to the late Lily Evans, sister in law to the late James Potter. My nephew Harry was until last year under our care, very badly cared for at that. The last time I saw you was the night you dropped us off in this house. You stayed to talk to Vernon and Dudley whilst I went shopping with Hestia. I learned of the victory a few days ago from Dudley and the Daily Prophet, which I am able to read by using this wand thing you gave me." She took the card from her purse and handed it to Dedalus who waved his wand over it a few times, mumbling under his breath. He lowered his wand and put it back into his robes.

"I'm sorry if I frightened you Mrs. Dursley, but it came as quite a shock to me to hear you talk like that. Your attitude to magic seems to have mellowed a bit. I see you used the card to travel on the Knight Bus. How did you work out it would do that, or even learn about the bus."

Mum glanced at me. "Dudley told me, he learned about it from some friends of his. You must understand Mr. Diggle that I've always felt that Lily was ignored by the magical community. Harry was just dumped on us. I resented him because he was all I had left of her. I always wanted to go to Hogwarts when she got her letter, but never could. Harry being there was a reminder of terrible things I'd said and done in my past and I'm ashamed to say I was not the Aunt I should have been."

"I see, very enlightening. Well I was coming to tell you that Harry has defeated 'You Know Who' and we can take you back to Privet Drive on Saturday next. Dudley will have finished his exams and we will have finished rebuilding the house."

"Rebuilding you mean..."

"The house was ransacked by Death Eaters. You do know what Death Eaters are?" At a nod from Mum and I, he continued. There was major structural damage and most of the possessions you left behind were destroyed. The damage has all been repaired and as far as the muggle authorities are concerned it was caused by a faulty gas main. Your neighbours all believe the house has been rebuilt by your insurance company Mr. Dursley, your company has continued to prosper and has recently received a large order from a company in Hogsmeade, Scotland to help with a major restoration project there."

I coughed. "Hogsmeade, isn't that where Harry's school is? Is it alright? I mean..."

"Yes Dudley, there was a lot of damage to the school and major work is being undertaken to restore it. As your family has some knowledge of the wizard world it was decided that your father's firm was ideally placed to assist with the purchase of certain materials to assist in the rebuilding.

"Bloody freaks interfering in what doesn't concern them," muttered Dad under his breath. Drawing a look of disgust from Dedalus, Mum and me.

"Vernon. I've told you. Shut up." Mum snarled at him. She looked at Dedalus. "Mr. Diggle can I ask, was a small wooden box found about so big?" She held her hands about twenty centimetres apart. "It would have had the initials 'L E P' burned into the top." She looked at me. "It belonged to my sister; she left it behind when she married James Potter. It has my only memories of her in it."

"Yes it survived. It has some quite complex protective spells on it. It wasn't damaged in any way that we could see. Even our most skilled Aurors couldn't open it. We wondered if it was dangerous. It has undergone quite a lot of scrutiny at the ministry in case it was booby trapped. Are you willing to help us with the problem? It would enable you to get the box back sooner rather than later. reluctant to return it in case it is booby trapped you see?"

"Please! I haven't looked at it for years, but I think I can remember how to open it!"

"Excellent, may I borrow your fire place please?" He drew his wand knelt at the fireplace and flames appeared in the grate. He threw a handful of powder into the flames and shoved his head into the fire. "Oh hello Arthur, is Hestia still in her office? Could you please ask her to hand me that box found at Privet Drive? Thanks'. I'll wait for it." A couple of seconds later he emerged from the flames unburned with a large cloth bag in his teeth. "Hate doing that, bloody tickles!" He handed the bag to Mum. "Is this your box Mrs. Dursley?"

Carefully Mum took the bag from him and removed a wooden box, the sides looked as if they were carved with fancy designs and the initials 'L E P' were very visible on the lid. "It certainly looks the same, hang on!" She prodded and twisted at the box for a couple of seconds and the lid slid from it. She looked inside and gave a smile. "It's Lily's box alright!" She handed it to Dedalus to check over.

"Everything is fine with it Mrs. Dursley," he said after a few seconds of wand waving over the box. No booby traps or anything untoward. How did you open it? Had our experts in the Auror office puzzled!"

"It's an old trick called a puzzle lock. You have to know how to open it." She shut it and handed it to Dedalus who prodded and poked at it for three or four minutes with no luck. Mum took it back; she carefully opened it again showing him as she did. She pushed in two different places and the lid slid off in her hand. "Easy when you know how!" she closed it again and passed it back. After a few false starts he got the box opened, and laughed.

"Ingenious, I really must show this to Arthur Weasley, he's fascinated by muggles. Bit of a nutter about it if you ask me, but he'd love this. It's like muggle magic. Could I borrow this please? I promise it will be back in your house when you return, I'll put it on the mantle in the front room for you!"

Mum hesitated for a moment, that would be very nice thank you, but could I take the photos out? I think I should like Dudley to see them." Dedalus handed her the box, she removed everything from it and handed it back to him. "Thank you!"

"My pleasure Mrs. Dursley and I'll see you Saturday next about noon to take you home. Good luck with your exams Dudley. I hear good things about you from the school. Your teachers are very hopeful for you." With that he stood turned on the spot and vanished with a crack.

"Ignorant..."

"Vernon, shut up, I've told you."

"Excuse me," there was a voice from the fire place. We all turned to look. Dedalus' head was in the flames, "I forgot to tell you, the Fidelius charm has been removed and your address is 100 Marina Gardens, Tinworth, Cornwall. You should be able to tell your friends where you live now. The fire will douse after I'm gone." With that he withdrew his head and the fire in the grate died.

I got up from the sofa and returned to the kitchen to finish the attempted restoration of the kitchen to normality before Mum could see it. She had always been a 'neat freak' you could have eaten off the floors at Privet Drive. The door opened up behind me and the Mum entered the kitchen. I groaned, I was in for a major telling off for this. If ever Harry had got the kitchen into this state, he'd have been locked in the cupboard under the stairs for a month without food.

"What a mess, Dudley. How can you manage to make this much mess with one meal. She rolled up her sleeves and dug into the washing up, humming under her breath. The photos etc from the box were placed on top of the fridge about the only place I hadn't managed to cover in curry during my cooking." She turned to look at me, "well don't just stand there, you made this mess, you can at least help to clean it up, and it will be useful for you to learn how."

A little under an hour later, the kitchen was gleaming again and we were sat at the kitchen table with a cup of tea and she was showing me through the contents of the box.

There were several photos of her as a girl and a younger girl beside her, which she explained was Lily her little sister. Then the most surprising thing, a letter written in green ink on parchment. Just like the letter Harry had got all those years ago. "I wrote to the Headmaster at Hogwarts, begging to be able to go. He wrote back and said that unfortunately I had no magic and wouldn't be allowed to go to the school. Your aunt and that boy, Severus Snape found this and it was the start of my withdrawal from my sister. I accused her of spying on me and called her a freak." There was also a wedding invitation to the wedding of James Potter to Lily Evans addressed to Mr. And Mrs. Dursley. A wizard photo of Aunt Lily holding a small baby in her arms, proudly smiling for the camera and tickling the baby under the chin. Then another letter on parchment in the same handwriting as the first. Mum held this to her chest and began to cry. Through her quiet crying she said, "This was the letter that was with Harry when he was left on our doorstep. It told me that Lily and James had been murdered by a wizard called Lord Voldemort and he had attempted to kill Harry, killing himself in the process. It asked me to take Harry in and look after him like my own son; he had some sort of protection whilst he was being cared for by me, his last blood relative. I never treated him like a son. He was worse off than a slave I think at times. I treated you to so much in a way as compensation for what I wasn't giving him. You had your own love and his as well."

"Mum, I'm telling you now. After I've taken my exams, I'm going to try and speak to Harry. I want to apologise to him in person. I've spoken to a few people asking them to pass messages on, but I don't know whether they have. When I go to university I'm not studying to join Dad at Grunnings. I'm going to go into social work. I want to try and stop the sort of abuse that Harry suffered from happening to other kids.

"I understand and support your choice, as for your father, well leave that to me. Don't mention any of this to him at least until we're back home."

Please review: I enjoy reading your reviews and hope you continue to enjoy the story


	15. Chapter 15

A New Beginning.

By Jon08

Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

I have always thought that a lot is left out of the books about Dudley. What did he see when the dementors attacked him? Why did he put that cup of tea out for Harry? Did he try to change himself because of it?

Chapter 15

Exams were finally over and I actually felt good about it. I had actually done well, or so I believed. But the good was overcome with some sadness. Tomorrow I was leaving Tinworth and going back to Little Whinging. It would mean losing touch with my new friends Justin and Lisa.

I was at Justin's and the three of us were discussing our plans for the future. Lisa and Justin had plans to go back to Hogwarts to finish their final year. They had received owls from the ministry saying they were welcome back to study their final year. It was my plan to go to university and study to become a social worker, but I surprised them with other news. I was going to go to Hogwarts to try and speak to Harry. I was disappointed that I had had no reply from the several letters and various messages that I had sent. I wanted to make my peace with him. I hoped he would forgive me, but I had little hope. If he hadn't replied yet, I might be in for a disappointment, but I meant to try.

"When will you be going up to Hogwarts?"

"I don't know we have to move back home first and get things settled there. I understand from what I've been reading in the Daily Prophet that Harry is staying at the castle to help with rebuilding the castle. If he's not there, he would probably be at the Burrow staying with the Weasleys, but I'm trying Hogwarts first. I know how to get there. I intend to catch the Hogwarts express; it is still running every day from King's Cross Station. I know it runs from platform 9¾, I remember taunting Harry about that the first year. Dad just dumped him at the station and we went to the hospital to get that pigs tail removed. Dad said he was glad to be rid of him, meaning Harry, and when he couldn't get to this nonexistent platform, he was on his own till his school year was over. He could live on the bloody station for a year. Of course, the platform really exists, we saw him emerge from there later when we collected him. I'm going to see his world."

Lisa looked at me, "you won't be able to get to the platform, you need to be magic. I remember when my parents took Richard and I there; they couldn't get to the platform without my help. The barrier was just a brick wall to them. The way out was easy, but you need magic to get in."

I was crestfallen, and then I had an idea. I took the card from my wallet. "I have this!"

"But they'll probably take that from you when you get back home. It does access special services, probably some account in Gringotts, they won't want you to have that after you're safe."

Oh no, all my plans were coming to naught. I desperately needed to do this for my own reasons. "I could catch a train to Scotland and get a bus or taxi to Hogsmeade."

"No, won't work, Hogsmeade is a completely magic village. I think there are muggle repelling charms around it. You'd never find it."

"I'll get the Knight Bus..." I stopped and looked at the card in my wallet. "I need the card to get that, don't I?"

Both Justin and Lisa nodded. They looked as crestfallen as me. "I suppose I could apparate to yours after you're settled and take you to the station."

"Thanks' for that Lisa, but I think I need to solve this little problem on my own. If I can't do this I don't deserve to meet Harry again. I hope we don't lose touch I wouldn't want that, Lisa I can still write to you by muggle post at Hogwarts, my Mum sent a letter there when she was a girl, so I know that can be done. If you don't mind I think I should go now. I've got some last minute packing to do." With that I let myself out and walked slowly back to the only home I'd known for the past year.

I was passing the newsagent's when I decided to buy a copy of the Daily Prophet, probably the last one I would buy. There was a tall ginger haired man with several scars on his face buying a copy of the prophet. Where had I seen him before? I paid for my paper and thanked the newsagent. I left the shop and slowly began the journey back to Marina Gardens. I had got about half way when I turned and ran back to the newsagents. "Excuse me, who was that red headed gentleman who left the shop as I came in. I think I know him, but can't place him."

"That was Bill Weasley; he lives locally, with his wife Fleur."

"Of course, I met him on New Year's Eve, with his younger sister Ginny. They were at the Happy Hippogriff. Would you be able to tell me his address, so I can speak to him? It's in regard to a family matter."

"I don't know if I can do that, but I will send him an owl. It's only local, shouldn't take long. What is your address?" I told him both addresses, the one we would be leaving tomorrow and 4 Privet Drive in Little Whinging if he replied after tomorrow. I thanked him and left the shop. I was going to get to Hogwarts and I needed all the help and advice I could get.

It was six o'clock that evening when an owl flew in through the open kitchen window with a letter tied to its leg. The owl hooted and stopped in front of me. I cautiously took the letter from its leg and read the address:

_Mr. Dudley Dursley,_

_100 Marina Gardens,_

_Tinworth,_

_Cornwall._

The owl hooted and flew back out the window. "Bloody owls, should be a law against it. Dudley what have you been up to? I told you not to have anything to do with these freaks. What is the meaning of this?" Dad yelled, his face rapidly turning purple.

I opened the envelope and read the short note inside. 'I'm not sure what you wish to talk to me about, but I admit to curiosity. We live at Shell Cottage, Lower Promenade, Tinworth. I look forward to seeing you later this evening, as I understand you are leaving tomorrow. I will be happy to give you any advice to you that I can. Bill Weasley.'

I put the letter in my pocket and got up to leave, "Mum. I'm going out. Won't be back too late." I ignored Dad and headed for the door.

"Dudley, you explain yourself. What have you been up to? Why are these bloody freaks contacting you? Explain yourself to me. DUDLEY, DO NOT IGNORE ME. I AM YOUR FATHER!" I closed the door behind me as the volume of his raving grew and set off towards the Lower Promenade.

As I was approaching a cottage covered in shells, I noticed something familiar about the area. I had been near here before. The house was totally unfamiliar I had never seen it before but I vaguely recognised the area. As I walked up the front path, something caught my eye. A large white stone lying in the middle of the lawn. I approached it slowly, why was this familiar? "Here lies Dobby, A Free Elf read the inscription on the stone. That was when I was here during the Easter holidays, but this was just dunes, no garden, no house. More magic!

I walked up the path and knocked on the door. It was opened by the extremely attractive woman I had seen in the pub at New Year. Mrs. Weasley, I'm Dudley Dursley, we met once before, your husband agreed to speak with me!" I held out my hand to shake hers.

"Oui, I remember now, you are ze cousin of famous 'Arry Potter." She rushed forward and kissed me on both cheeks. "Come in. Come in, Bill he is waiting in ze lounge." I followed her into the house in a daze. The house seemed larger than I expected from the frontage, she led me down a short corridor and motioned me into a large room. "I will join you shortly, I go to make tea, yes." With that she left me and turned into another doorway.

Bill was seated in a comfortable looking armchair he motioned me towards the sofa. "Please take a seat, Dudley. I remember you now! Harry's cousin right? How can I help you?"

"It's like this Mr. Weasley."

"Call me Bill. When I hear Mr. Weasley, I immediately look for my Dad."

"Er! Ok! Bill. For most of my life I have been a complete and utter ba... rotter to Harry. When he saved my life from the dementors two years ago, it made me realise I needed to rethink my life. I have tried to make amends with Harry. Sent him apologies. I even asked your sister at New Year to tell him I was sorry for my past actions. I have heard nothing and wish to make my apologies to him in person. I understand that he is at Hogwarts and as a muggle I will be unable to get there. For the past year I have been able to interact with the wizard world through the use of this wand," I handed him the wand I had been given by Dedalus. "I have been given to understand that I will need to return this tomorrow when I return to my old house. It has proved extremely beneficial to me, I have managed to learn a lot about your world and I do not wish to lose that connection. Is there any way you can think of that would enable me to continue to keep that connection?" Whilst Bill was examining the wand, Mrs. Weasley entered from the kitchen with a tray of tea.

"Milk? Sugar?" she asked.

"er! Just milk please."

"Bon!" She waved her wand and the pot rose to pour tea into a cup which floated over to me. Another cup had 1 sugar and milk in it and floated to Bill. He grabbed it from the air as he continued to stare at my 'wand'. I took the cup that was hovering in front of me and nervously took a sip.

Bill handed me the wand back and I returned it to my wallet. "That is one beautiful piece of magic, both wizard and goblin work. It allows access to a special account at Gringotts, I don't know who set this up, but they must have pulled some big favours in with the goblins. They don't like wizards that much as a rule."

"Why not?"

"They believe wizards treat them as animals, not giving them the respect they feel they deserve. Goblins are forbidden to carry wands, and they resent that fact, they believe that it is another way of subjugating them. Their views on property ownership are different to ours; they think wizards are thieves for passing goblin made artefacts down to future generations. I personally believe that if wizards are not careful they could have another goblin war on our hands. And it's one we'll be hard pressed to win, so the level of co-operation in creating this wand for you is surprising."

"I've read your history books and seen the goblin wars mentioned, but the history books don't say all that, the goblins are portrayed as greedy, vicious creatures, with no respect for wizard values."

"Of course, history is written by the victors. But it is an important factor to understand your opponents and wizards have not done that. They continue to make the same mistakes with magical creatures, all magical creatures."

"I've only dealt with one magical creature, but I think I've got on well with her!" Bill viewed me with a curious expression. I removed the mobile phone from my pocket, "is it safe to use this around here? Or should I go outside?"

Bill took my phone, looked at it for a few seconds, "this is a fellytone? You can call someone with it, a bit like fire talking if I understand right?"

"Telephone, but basically that's it. I understand that magic and technology don't mix so I wouldn't want to damage it or your home by using it in here. But I would like to speak to a friend about something and see if you can meet someone who I've interacted with and maybe changed their life for the better."

"You've intrigued me, I'm curious to know how you think you could improve the life of a magical creature." He looked again at my phone and waved his wand at it. It seemed as if for a second there was a ball of light round the phone which sank into it and vanished. "There, magical absorption shield. Spell of my Dad's own invention. He's always mucking about with Muggle stuff trying to make it work. That spell will make it safe for you to use in the house. Let's see this magical creature of yours then."

"Justin, hi, I'm trying to solve the problem we were talking about earlier and some points have come up in the conversation, could you be persuaded to allow Biskit to come here and talk to me and someone else. It won't be detrimental to her or your family. But it will show that some negotiation is possible between magical species."

"Hang on, I'll speak to here and get her opinion on the matter." For a couple of minutes I was holding a dead quiet phone to my ear, I could hear some muted conversation in the background. "Biskit is a little worried, she wants to help doesn't know if she can, without help from me, could I come with her." I asked Justin to hold the line for a moment and asked Bill and Fleur if it was alright for Justin to come along with Biskit. They were both looking intrigued now, so I told Justin to come along. Before I could tell him the address, there was a knock at the door.

Fleur looked at me and quickly went to the door and came back escorting Justin and Biskit. Bill looked at Justin and the scared Biskit dressed in a homemade dress of several clashing colours. "A free house elf, I thought the only one was Dobby!"

"Oh no sir, Biskit is not free. Binky is working for Master Justin and his family." She looked fearfully at Justin to see if she had spoken out turn. Justin gave her a smile and motioned her to continue. "Biskit is proud to work as all house elves must, and Biskit is honoured that Master Justin allows her to be making her own clothes."

"Making her own clothes?"

I looked at Bill and Fleur. "House elves have always been told that if they are given clothes by their masters, they are being set free, dismissed. But if a house elf is doing your washing are you not giving them clothes, albeit dirty ones. If something needs repairing, won't a house elf do that? The first few times I saw Biskit she was wearing what looked to be an old pillowcase. After my talk with her and Justin about clothes, she was constantly altering this pillow case, one day t shirt and shorts, the next a dress. Then one day she was wearing a very colourful outfit, much like you see. I don't know what she made it from, but it certainly was colourful."

Justin laughed. "For Christmas I gave her a sample book of materials from the local robe shop. I told her that she was to use some of the material as cleaning cloths, but others could be used to make herself some real clothes. At first we had several bright cleaning cloths, but Biskit had no new clothes, so I told her that the rest of the material was to be used to make herself some clothes. When they wore out, she could use them as cleaning cloths. Since then she's been the best dressed elf in Tinworth."

"Interesting point, you've not given her clothes which would be tantamount to casting her out, but she's still getting clothes. I like it. I don't approve of the way house elves are treated, and Fleur is dead set against us getting one, for similar reasons. She's part veela and is lucky that she is allowed to live as a witch. If the ministry had decided the other way, her and her sister would be living as nature spirits in the wild, but luckily it was decreed her mother was more witch than veela when she was born, so she was allowed to be brought up in human society. Of course the ministry have never seen Fleur in a temper. That's when you need to fear her veela ancestry." Fleur gave bill a violent stare. "Just kidding dear, you know I love you dearly.

Mum was prejudiced against Fleur to begin with, her 'part human' background, she may be liberal minded where muggle borns are concerned but half-breeds in her view were another matter. It wasn't till the night that Dumbledore was murdered and I got these scars, that Mum finally started to accept her. Now of course she is eagerly awaiting grandchildren, that will be the point when she is really happy with my choice of wife. Mum loves kids, as you could probably tell, me being one of seven."

"Seven! I think I've met most of them, there's the twins, Ron, Ginny and you! Who are the others?"

"There's Charlie, he works in Romania, looking after dragons and Percy, he's back at the ministry after quitting during the battle of Hogwarts, he loves it there, born beaurocrat."

"Perhaps I need to speak to your brother Percy then, if he works at the ministry? Maybe he could help me?"

"Oh you could try him, if you don't mind waiting until Biskit here is Minister for Magic." Biskit gave Bill an alarmed look and looked fearfully at Justin. "Sorry Biskit, what I meant was Percy is the born office worker, never do anything without instruction that haven't been signed in triplicate, filed, lost and finally recycled as firelighters.i Your best course of action would be to speak to Dedalus when he takes you home tomorrow and see if he can get you an appointment to put your case to Kingsley Shacklebolt, the new Minister, but I warn you, you'll need to put forward a good case, bringing every resource you have to succeed. Kingsley is a fair man, but he's also a strict one. No bending the rules without very good cause."

"Thank you, Bill, Fleur, you have been most helpful." I turned to Biskit and Justin, thank you both you've been very helpful." I reached into my pocket and pulled out a galleon, possibly one of the last I'd have. Glancing at Justin and getting a smile of approval I knelt before Biskit. "Thank you Biskit, you've been very helpful to me, this is a little present to show my appreciation of your help."

Biskit looked nervously up at Justin. Take it Biskit, it is yours to do with or spend as you wish. Dudley is thanking you for your help and you deserve it."

Biskit turned back to me and said with a bright look in her eyes, "Biskit is saying thank you Master Dudley."

Bill laughed softly at this. "I wish you luck Dudley, let me know any final outcome won't you."

The three of us made ready to leave, Justin looked at me, "would like a lift back, I'm sure Biskit owuldn't find dropping you off on our way home."

"as long as you don't mean dropping literally I'd welcome it. I think I've got a lot to do if I'm going to succeed." I carefully took biskit's hand and we fell into the pressing dark and emerged in front of 100 Marina Gardens, with a crack.

"good luck Dudley." Said Justin just before he and Biskit vanished with another loud crack.

I let myself in, and ignoring the dirty look I was getting from Dad, went upstairs to start putting evidence together to support my case.

Welcome to the end of a slightly longer chapter than usual. This conversation just seemed to come. From re-reading DH, I understand that Bill would have his own views about goblins and well he just needed to preach a bit about it.

I do want to thank all the Lovely people who have reviewed my story, special thanks go to madeyemarauder and Zireael07 whose continual support and encouragement is greatly appreciated. Everyone please continue to enjoy the story and review.

i This little passage is taken from the late Douglas Adams 'The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy' not a direct quote, but done from memory, but it just summed up Percy's character to me.


	16. Chapter 16

A New Beginning.

By Jon08

Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

I have always thought that a lot is left out of the books about Dudley. What did he see when the dementors attacked him? Why did he put that cup of tea out for Harry? Did he try to change himself because of it?

Please let me apologise to all my readers who were eagerly awaiting updates to this story. I attempted to upload this chapter to my document manger and was informed I Had reached my limit. The instructions I received were slightly ambiguous and I unfortunately deleted some chapters. So you may be getting multiple alerts. I am trying to rectify this ASAP.

Chapter 16

Everything was packed and ready to move back to Privet Drive. Mum and I were seated calmly waiting for the wizards to come and take us home. Dad was sitting upright in the armchair, mumbling under his breath about bloody freaks and the disruption they had caused to the live of decent, honest people. Mum and I were ignoring his rant. I had spoken to Mum earlier and told her of my plans to speak to the Aurors about the wand card and the possibility of getting something similar to help me in my quest to make amends with Harry. She was fully supportive of what I wanted to do.

We had made sure that everything was secure. That everything was unplugged or disconnected. All doors and windows were locked, which was probably caused our surprise at the sudden knock at the door. We had been unable to hear the apparition of our escort. To my surprise, we were greeted by Hestia Jones and Bill Weasley.

"Hello again, Mr. Dursley, Mrs. Dursley, Dudley, for those of you who aren't aware this is Bill Weasley. He volunteered to help me get you home. Dedalus is busy rebuilding someone's house at the moment. Someone else who was under protection during the war. It's a very busy period for the Auror Office and The Order of The Phoenix, trying to put everything back together."

"What's the Order of the Phoenix?" asked Mum.

"It was an organisation set up by Dumbledore during the last war to combat 'You Know Who' and reformed when he raised himself from the dead. It was doing its best to protect all muggleborn families and blood traitors."

"Blood traitors?"

"Families like mine," replied Bill, "families who do not have the correct attitude to pureblood purity. We were just as bad as muggleborns. His followers would love to have had an excuse to do away with our entire family. Luckily most of us survived, my brother Fred died at the battle of Hogwarts, it's affected George pretty badly. The rest of the family are doing their best to help him cope."

"I'm sorry to hear about your brother, would you pass my condolences to your family."

"I will, but I have other news to pass on to you. Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister for Magic has agreed to meet with you. You will need to present your case to him, and you should put a good argument forward. Kingsley is not likely to just grant you the wand you ask for. You must give as much supporting evidence as you can. He is going to need a lot of convincing." He handed me a handwritten note, "it's written instructions for how to get to the Ministry but they are spelled so you can only see and use them when needed. This is for the protection and security of the wizard world. I'd suggest you check the note every night until it can be read."

"Ok, thank you, I made some notes from books I read whilst in Tinworth. I'll use those to help me in my quest, your views on the goblin wars also made me look something up in those notes last night and I have some views that the Minister might find interesting."

"I wish you luck. Now shall we get you home?" He waved his wand and the two large boxes we had packed to take back with us vanished. "Those have gone back to your home in Little Whinging. Your neighbours believe you have been abroad on Sabbatical. All correspondence will magically be re-addressed back to your home there and if they have already been in correspondence with you, they will believe that is the address they have always dealt with. So your universities will not notice anything untoward Dudley. Now Mrs. Dursley, Dudley if you will take Hestia's hands, Mr. Dursley if you will take mine." We took the indicated hands and Bill waved his wand. Our suitcases floated to Bill's outstretched hand. Then with a sickening feeling of going through a dark straw we apparated again.

This time I managed to stay upright, the feeling of sickness that I had experienced the first time was not so bad this time. I looked around to slightly familiar surroundings. We were at the same motorway services we had left from our first day in hiding.

Hestia opened the boot of a new car, the latest model of the car type we had abandoned here nearly a year ago. She handed some papers to Dad. "This is your new car Mr. Dursley; all legal documentation has been sorted. It is in compensation for the loss of your last vehicle. It was destroyed by Death Eaters two days after we left. Now if you will drive us back to Privet Drive, there are a few more things we need to discuss."

"I'll leave you in Hestia's capable hands!" Bill said and with a final shake our hands vanished with a crack. Dad jumped at the sound of his apparition and looked at Hestia in fear.

The drive back to Privet Drive was uneventful; Dad was looking around at the new car, checking out the equipment that had been supplied with the car. He looked pleased with this part of the deal. This car was top of the range. It had all extras as standard; surely this wasn't going to be the thing that made him easier with magic. Hestia looked at him out of the corner of her eye and glanced at Mum and I with a smile.

We carried the luggage into the house which Hestia opened with a wave of her wand and stood back to let us in. The house looked just as we had left it, with the exception of Mum's box sitting on the mantle above the fireplace. The house looked as if it had just been cleaned, there was not the slightest sign of any dust to say that the house had been damaged, rebuilt or abandoned. We could have just gone out of the front door minutes ago.

"All your bank accounts and details with local companies have been re-established. The authorities believe the house has been empty for the past year. That is why they have not made any enquiries as to why the utilities were cut off. The damage done was repaired by Ministry officials in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. Your muggle authorities believe they repaired the damage, but as it was caused by wizards that was our responsibility and we sorted it for you.

"I should bloody well think so..."

"Dad shut up!"

"I agree Vernon. After the terrible way we treated Harry all the years he lived with us, I am grateful that his people agreed to protect us and I will not tolerate that sort of language any more in this house. You have been warned." I looked at Mum in surprise, she really meant that. What could it mean?

Hestia looked a little surprised at the turn the conversation was taking as well. "I must now relieve you of the cards you were given when you went into hiding. I have non magical replacements for you that are all set up and ready for use. Your bank accounts have earned interest during the past year, whilst they have been in the care of Gringotts, the wizard bank." We handed her the wand / cards, myself a little reluctantly, Dad was extremely eager to get rid of his, and he almost threw it at her. "Thank you! I hope your quest is successful Dudley, I've heard good things about you from the magical community in Tinworth. I wish you luck." She shook both mine and Mums hands, visibly ignoring Dad, walked out the door and down the path. As she closed the gate she vanished with a loud crack.

"What's this quest of yours Dudley, and what contact have you had with the magical community in that tiny tin-pot town they dumped us in?" Behind him I could see Mum looking a little apprehensively at me, so I decided to tell only a small part of the truth.

"I want to speak to Harry again Dad, I meant what I said when we left. I don't think he's a waste of space and he was responsible for saving my life, I'm grateful for that. You haven't raised me to be ungrateful." And that was a downright lie, they'd raised me to be an ignorant bully, but I wasn't going to say that to him. "As for the magical community in Tinworth, I must have met some wizarding folk and not known it, I tried to be polite to everyone I met. I didn't want another tail." Again part truth, I am sure there were wizards I met that looked like ordinary muggles, and if there were I was unaware of it. I noticed Dad cringe at the memory of that tail, I still remembered it, but I had gained a little appreciation of the meaning behind it when those dementors attacked me. I still didn't like thinking about it, but it made a point to Dad. I could see Mum smiling behind him and she nodded at me as if to say I'd done right.

I grabbed my suitcases from where they had been left and made my way upstairs to my bedroom. That didn't look like I'd left it. Toys that I'd broken and thrown under the bed were mended and stacked neatly on shelves. the bookshelves had all the books that I'd had in them before, but whereas they'd been covered in food, or tea where I'd used them as cup stands before I left, they now looked as if they'd just come from the printers. Although the wallpaper was the same pattern as I remembered it looked like it had been put up yesterday and not a few years ago. The bed had even been repaired; I'd been so overweight that I'd broken some of the struts in it. But now it looked like it was fresh from the shop. When they said they had repaired the damage that had been done, they weren't kidding.

I sorted all my clothes out into the proper places and sat at the once familiar desk. I had a lot of work to do and I needed to be as quick and as thorough as I could. I had no idea how long before I would get my appointment to see the Minister for Magic.

I worked solidly over that Sunday and Monday, checking the notes I had made from the wizarding books in Tinworth and collating it into several pages of information in a new document. Then I checked some data on the internet and added this too.

I did take a break on the Monday to go into the town, I took one of the last of the Galleons I had in my pocket to a jewellers to see what he could tell me of it. After he had made some checks, he said he needed to get the gold assayed to know its purity. I had several documents to sign to say it was mine and to prove my identity. He assured me that it would only take about ten days to get the information back. I hoped I would be lucky and that I didn't get called to the ministry before that. To be on the safe side I inquired how much the gold would be worth if it wasn't that pure.

"Well if that particular piece of metal you gave me is gold and only 9carat gold, I would say the value at today's prices would be about £200, it weighed about two ounces and pure 24 carat gold, or bullion standard is worth about £200 an ounce, so it could be worth more."

"Thank you, could you call me when you get the results through, please?" I gave him my mobile number and left the shop. Blimey these wizards were not up with the modern world at all. A Galleon was worth about five pounds; street value in a shop, and if as I suspected it was pure gold, at two ounces in gold weight the coin was worth about £400. Now if they were ignorant of this fact, they could use this as a way of placating the goblins, if they were also unaware of the same fact, they might not be. From what I had heard they were pretty shrewd, but it could be of advantage. All of this was put into the document I was creating. I was going to use everything I could think of to help me.

That night I checked the note I had been given by Bill Weasley, but it was still blank. I went to bed knowing that I would need to get more facts to support myself.

The following morning I was woken by Mum's voice from outside the bedroom door, "is my special young man all ready?"

"Ready for what Mum? I didn't get to sleep until four this morning. I was working on something."

"Well, don't blame me. Now get washed and dressed and come downstairs. Your father and I are waiting."

What was so important about today, I didn't even know the date, the last few days had been so hectic. I wish she'd have let me sleep in, I was exhausted. I washed and dressed and headed downstairs, yawning all the time.

"Happy Birthday Dudley," chorused both Mum and Dad as I staggered into the kitchen. Huh, was today my birthday? I'd completely lost track of the days. Exams, packing and the move home. I was eighteen today!

There was a couple of envelopes on the table and a few small parcels. I sat down and yawned again. "Sorry there's not so many as last year Dudley, but you know how it's been. What with being in a strange town and moving and everything." Apologised Dad.

"That's fine Dad, I don't mind I figure I'm too old to be counting presents anyway. It's quality not quantity and whatever I've got it the thought that counts. I don't need hundreds of toys like I had in the past. Speaking of which, there's some old stuff in my room that got repaired while we were away, I figure it could go to charity."

Dad appeared to be chewing his moustache in an effort not to say something nasty about who had obviously repaired the old broken toys in my room. "That's not a bad idea Dudley; you don't want old clutter in your room. I'll help you to take anything to the charity shop if you can put it in boxes."

"Thanks dad," I mumbled through my cereal. I looked at the cards on the table. Both were postmarked Tinworth, Cornwall, I opened the first envelope. There were two cards inside. One was from Mrs. Turpin and Richard, the second from Lisa. It looked at first glance to have been written in fountain pen, but I suspected it had been might have been written with a quill. That piece of information would be hidden from both Mum and Dad though. I knew Mum's attitude to Harry and wizards in general but what would be her reaction to a witch as a daughter in law, if it ever went that far. The second card was from Justin and his Mum, and again I suspected it had been written using a quill. Justin said cryptically that he was planning an extra year of study before deciding on university. Dad just looked perplexed as I read that little bit of information out, but from behind I could see Mum smiling and nodding at me, she understood what extra education Justin would be getting.

I moved on to the small pile of presents on the table. There was a nice gold watch and a signet ring. Another hand knitted jumper from Mum and an envelope. That surprised me, what could be in an envelope. I opened it slowly trying to figure out what could be in it as I did so. It was a Provisional Driving License and a voucher for lessons with a local driving school. "Sorry about that Dudley, normally we would have got you that last year, but well you know the problems we had then. When you pass your Driving Test, we'll see about getting you a proper car, but in the meantime," he held his car keys up. "You are going to need new clothes for when you go to university, come on." He tossed the keys at me and got up to leave.

The drive to the Shopping Mall was a bit of a disaster, I stalled several times, broke the speed limit several time, unintentionally of course, and nearly hit a bus. Dad looked nervous the whole time. I was unsure of Mum's reaction in the back.

I'm sure Mum and Dad would have bought the whole Mall for me, if I'd been of a mind to let them. There was an almost obscene amount of clothes, by the time we were finished, and then the day took a turn for the worse. Dad was taking us to Aunt Marge's for tea.

After a thoroughly disagreeable evening with Aunt Marge slobbering over how I was her precious new man and that vicious little mongrel, Ripper, trying to shred my leg in an effort to get the food from the table, we were finally home. I had a wad of cash from in pocket from Aunt Marge and a pile of clothes in my room, some of which I was sure I would never wear. I ignored the pile of clothes sitting on the bed and checked the documentation I had so far compiled to show to Kingsley Shacklebolt. It was a start. But I was going to need more.

Author Note: in Britain you can get a Provisional (learners) Drivers Licence at 17, but you must have a fully qualified driver in the vehicle with you at all times and there are restrictions on the type of roads you can drive on.

Please review: thanks' to all the lovely people who are reading and enjoying my story. I appreciate the encouragement I get from your reviews.


	17. Chapter 17

A New Beginning.

By Jon08

Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

I have always thought that a lot is left out of the books about Dudley. What did he see when the dementors attacked him? Why did he put that cup of tea out for Harry? Did he try to change himself because of it?

Author Note; Again; an apology to readers of my story who received many notifications of multiple chapters. This was due to a misunderstanding of mine with the document manager.

Chapter 17

I spent the next few days looking into several diverse fields that I wanted to use as evidence that the wizard world needed Muggle help, or it was in trouble, that the wizarding world was in danger of making itself extinct, if it didn't change itself. I was going to hopefully shock Kingsley Shacklebolt into helping me complete my quest.

The jeweller called me on the second Wednesday after I dropped the gold Galleon off with him for assaying. He needed to talk. I made my way on the bus back to the shop wondering what the problem could be. Since I had handed back the wand, the Galleon looked like a nugget of gold rather than the coin I remembered it looking like before, with proper markings etc. More Magic!

The jeweller welcomed me into the shop, "I must ask where you got this gold? You are in no trouble about it, but it had the experts curious. 24 carat, or pure gold, is anything above 99½%. This gold is 100% pure gold and as a result should be soft, but it's almost as hard as steel. Do you know anything about that?"

"I have absolutely no idea, perhaps its leprechaun gold? Maybe that's why it's different. Its magical," I sniggered trying to make it sound like I thought the idea a joke.

"Hmm! I see, well at the current value of gold, your lump of gold is worth £420, I can give you that if you wish to sell it. Although I would still like to know more about its history."

"No, thank you, if I could take the gold with me and if you could give me something in writing to inform me of the value." I hoped he wouldn't be too difficult about this. I needed this Galleon and the documentation to add to my file of evidence for Kingsley Shacklebolt.

I was slowly building a case to prove that I should have some sort of assistance to go to Hogsmeade and Hogwarts to see Harry, but more to the notion that the wizarding world needed Muggles and Muggle knowledge. I had seen from my limited interaction with the wizard community in Tinworth, that some wizard were lacking in knowledge about Muggles and their world. I had met the only wizard who seemed to have an understanding of Muggles and that had been four years ago, and I was terrified of him at the time. Arthur Weasley. He, according to Bill, was fascinated by us and our society and had even done some 'mucking about' with technology. His spell that enabled me to use my mobile phone in a magical environment was something to be used. Wizards could communicate using a fire, but what was the use of that if you were in transit, or in the middle of summer. Wizards didn't need to carry mobile phones per se, they could mimic the actions of a mobile phone with magic I am sure, they had radios after all.

I was checking the note from Kingsley Shacklebolt every evening. It was over a week after I had picked the gold Galleon back from the jewellers on Friday evening that the note had changed. "Mr. Dursley, An appointment has been made for you to see Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister for Magic on Monday 13th July at 11am. You should leave the Muggle underground at St James Park; go onto Broadway, down Tothhill Street, and into Old Queen street. On this road you will find an out of order Phone Box. You should enter and dial '62442'. This will take you to the Ministry."

I checked the train times the following morning, I would need to make a reasonably early start on Monday, but it could be done. I wouldn't need to spend the night before in London. I had a large printed document that I would be taking with me with lots of facts and figures to help me and support my case on various levels.

I told Mum, that Saturday evening that I would be going to London on Monday. Dad was out of the room when I told her this and what time I would need to leave, between us we got our story straight so that Dad would not get suspicious about my leaving the house earlier than usual that day. In truth, he might not notice anything out of the ordinary, but we had to be sure. He was still not very happy about the way his firm had been run the past year and would make odd comments about amateur businessmen putting their nose in where it was not wanted. Mum and I knew that he was dying to talk about the 'freaks' that had interfered for the last twelve months in his firm. I didn't see what he had to complain about to be honest. He was always saying that the workload had increased and he needed to take on more employees to deal with the extra work. It seemed as if these, Ahem freaks, had done him a favour, but would he admit it. Not if his life depended on the fact. They were wrong in his opinion and that was all that mattered to him.

I left the house after Dad that morning, he failed to take much notice of the fact I had woken and got up earlier than usual. He left just before eight that morning and I was ready and off by 8.30. Truth to tell I was allowing more time than in needed for the journey, but I wanted to be early. No point in turning up late that would be a major black mark on my efforts. I travelled by train to London and by tube to St. James Park, the connections all fell my way and I was there by ten in the morning. I bought a coffee to go and began to follow the directions I had been given to get to the Ministry.

I arrived in Old Queen Street with plenty of time to spare. I dropped the now empty cup into the nearest bin, how different that was from the old me as well. It would have been on the floor or chucked at someone's car. I stepped into the broken phone box and dialled 62442 as I had been directed by the note. A voice rang out from somewhere in the phone box but not the handset. "Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business."

"Dudley Dursley, appointment with the Minister for Magic."

"Thank you visitor! Please take the badge and attach to the front of your robes." I pinned the badge that said Dudley Dursley, appointment with Minister for Magic to my leather jacket. "Visitor to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wand for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the atrium." Suddenly the telephone booth was sinking down into the pavement. Was that all the magic involved in hiding the Ministry of Magic in London, it was just underground? Shattered one illusion then. The lift had hardly started moving when it came to a stop. I stepped out into an enormous lobby that looked to be three or four floors high at the least. I'd change my mind if this was all there was to hiding the Ministry of Magic I was impressed. It was bigger than I understood an aircraft hanger to be and that was just what I could see. I slowly made my way to the far end of the atrium to where a bored looking man in blue robes sat at a desk. All around me people were appearing in fire places and quickly making their way to various lifts and doorways and vanishing again.

"May I have you wand please?" asked the bored looking security wizard.

"No, sorry, I don't have one! I'm a Muggle."

"Really sir I must insist or I will have to call security... s' sorry did you say you were a muggle?" Before I could answer, he looked at me and walked quickly to the nearest fireplace threw some powder in it and stuck his head in the flames. Whatever was said he was obviously quickly satisfied as he got back up and returned to his desk. "Someone will be coming to meet you Mr. Dursley, if you would like to take a seat." He waved his wand and a reasonably comfortable looking chair appeared, I thanked him and sat down. I watched the lifts in the background to pass the time; they were going up down, backwards, left and right. How there wasn't a collision I don't know.

A red headed gentleman a few years older than me came up from behind and spoke briefly to the security wizard at the desk and came up to me, holding out his hand. "Mr. Dursley, I'm your guide, Percy Weasley, if you will follow me I will escort you to the Minister's office." I shook his hand and set out to follow him to the lifts. He took hold of one of the handles fixed to the ceiling and indicated that I should do the same. I grabbed hold of one of the handles and the lift shot backwards. The lift sped off, changing direction several times and I'm sure I left my stomach somewhere on the journey. After a fast and nauseating journey we came to a large room with several doors leading off from it. One door directly ahead had a large fist shaped hole out of it at eye level. Percy lead me to a door round to the right and knocked firmly on it.

"Come in," said a deep and somehow comforting voice.

Percy preceded me in and spoke to a tall black gentleman I had seen before on the television standing in the background with the Prime Minister. "Mr. Dursley to see you minister!"

"Thank you Weasley, you may go! I will deal with the business here." Percy looked a little put out by this, as if he expected to be needed, but he nodded and left the office closing the door behind him. The minister turned to me, "now Mr. Dursley, Dudley if I may what makes you think that we should change centuries of secrecy and relax the Statute of Secrecy so you can ease your guilt and visit your cousin? Your track record with him in the past has not been very promising. Why should we believe that it will improve in the future? You have never shown any sense of family to him in the past. Why now?"

"I know. I'm not proud of my past and for my attitude towards Harry, for some of my behaviour I plead ignorance and nurture. I was merely following the attitude of my parents in the way they treated Harry. I came to understand what sort of person I had been on the nigh we were both attacked by the dementors. It made me realise the error of my ways and try to change. I undertook to learn what I could about Harry and his schooling from a neighbour of ours, Mrs. Arabella Figg, a squib I believe is the correct term for her. It was a revelation to me, that I should have been a friend to Harry all his life, not because of his magic, that is incidental, but because he was my cousin and we should be friends. Further to this I must point out that the Statute of Secrecy has not applied to me for several years, since Harry got his first letter to Hogwarts, although I did not know that at the time as my father kept burning them. I have been no danger to wizard secrecy before; in what way am I now, because I wish to renew an acquaintanceship with Harry after he has left the home we grew up in together? I have been mixing with wizards for most of the past year and I cannot see in what way I have broken the Statute during that time either!"

The Minister indicated I should take a seat and looked hard at me, "I have spoken to many people you interacted with during the past year and in that you are right, you have done nothing to endanger wizard society, in fact you have been the very example of a well behaved young man. That is one of the reasons that I agreed to see you. I have also spoken to Mr. Finch-Fletchley and his house elf, Biskit, regarding you. I understand it was your idea that enabled her to wear clothing?"

I gulped wondering where this particular line of reasoning was going; I hoped it was not in the wrong direction. Was Kingsley Shacklebolt one of those wizards who believed in the enslavement of the house elves? "Yes Sir! I spoke with Justin and Biskit about this. Although she believed she was a slave to his family, he took my stance that she was a valued servant and friend and should be treated with some dignity and respect. It does nobody any good to subjugate and enslave other peoples. The muggle community enacted laws to that end centuries ago, although they were people similar to yourself, being black, not a different race, the principle is the same."

He raised his eyes slightly about my comment of him being black, but nodded for me to continue. The point is Minister, that Biskit and others like her a valid part of your society, they wash, clean and cook for many families and have done for millennia, yet you treat them like vermin. They are a race of beings capable of magic, yet you deny them some of the basic rights that you allow yourselves. Clothing, freedom of movement, wands. Are they not entitled to their own dignity? Your history has also shown the similar lack of decency to some other creatures that you deal with on a regular basis."

"What other creatures are you referring to?"

"Goblins, you use their services to look after your gold, you are perfectly happy to purchase the articles they produce, but again I understand they are denied an equal footing in your society."

"Interesting do carry on!"

I removed the Galleon from my pocket, "this is one of your units of currency, and I believe you must be familiar with it. Do you know it's worth in Muggle society?"

"About 5 Muggle pounds?"

"Partially Minister." I removed the assayers report from my bag and passed it across. "The goblins have been in charge of wizard finances for several hundred years, you use their skill to make your coins and care for your money, but you do them an injustice. The Muggle value of this coin is £420 in gold value alone. Who has the benefit of all that wealth? No one, it is locked up and hoarded in wizard vaults at Gringotts. Do you not wonder at the anger of the goblins at wizards? You are keeping millions of pounds worth of gold in their bank and it just sits there, they make trinkets and jewellery that you buy and they see nothing in the transaction but a few gold coins back for it."

"What do you suggest we do?" He appeared interested now in what I had to say.

"I believe the Muggle term is re-issuing your coinage. It happened a few years ago, that the amount of metal in the coins was worth more melted down that it was in face value. They changed the metal that the coins were made of and plated them in the appropriate metal to make them look the same. If you were to allow the goblins to re-issue your coinage and the gold that was left over was put into a trust that they could use to interact with Muggle banking institutions, with the interest that they made being theirs, I believe that could go a long way to making the goblins more charitable to wizard kind. If you gave them the right to use wands and even go to Hogwarts if they so wish, you would make some valued allies. Imagine what they could teach wizards at the same time as they learn from you."

"Please do carry on; you certainly have some very interesting views! I cannot say I will agree with you, but please continue!"

I removed my mobile phone from my pocket and handed it to the Minister. "Are you aware of what this is?"

He looked closely and examined it. "It is a mobile telephone, it is of no use in a magical area, and they don't work well with magic!"

I took the phone from him and dialled London Transport and made enquiries about train times for my departure later this evening. All the time on speaker, so the minister could hear both sides of the conversation, and see I was not some idiot talking to his own hand. The Minister watched this whole process with a look of bemused and perplexed amazement. "How were you able to do that, I understand they normally explode in close proximity to magic use?"

"The son of one of your own ministry employees enchanted it with I believe 'a magical absorption shield' he termed it. The fact that it works in a magical environment is one thing, but what it implies is another."

"Do go on, I must admit you're beginning to interest me now!"

"Minister, how does your office contact you when you are not here?"

"They use floo powder and fire talk me!"

"And how did they speak to you when you were guarding the Prime Minister, I am sure you didn't carry a fire place round worth you? Or perhaps if you were out for a meal in a muggle environment, they couldn't talk to you then?" If your research department could duplicate the technology used in this phone, you would always be reachable, no matter where you were, even in flight on a broomstick. I'm sure you don't carry a fireplace there either!"

"No they cannot speak to me then. I see your point, but I can see occasions when I might not wish to be contacted by work. What about then?"

I switched my mobile phone off and looked at him, "exactly the same thing with your magical communication device. It shouldn't be too difficult for wizards to duplicate this function and if they found some way of linking it to Muggle communications, it would enable non-magical relatives to speak to their kin in an easy manner too. You don't get covered in ash either! There are areas of magic that could be of benefit to muggles as well. For instance medicine. I was told by Mrs. Figg that Harry had all the bones in his arm regrown after an accident playing quidditch in his second year. If this could be changed in some way so it could be used by Muggle medical authorities, it could generate a source of income for your society. You wouldn't have to tell them it was magic, it needs to be put forward as a new discovery in their own field of medicine, but it can be done. There is probably some advances in Muggle medicine that may be of use to yourselves. The study of genetics may be of some interest to your medi-wizards too."

"I'm sorry, what was that last term?"

"Genetics. The study of passing abilities and traits down the generations. For example my mother has no magic, but her sister who is a child of the same parents had. Why not both of them? It is probable that somewhere in our past, we had a squib in our family tree and the magical genes have resurfaced again or it could just be a random chance."

"Sorry, you've lost me? What have jeans, which I believe are an item of Muggle clothing got to do with you having or not having magic?"

I explained the difference between 'genes' and 'jeans' along with my limited understanding of DNA. "It could help you find out why squibs are born and why Muggleborns wizards happen. I understood from Mrs. Figg that when a squib is born they are often cast out of the family; the wizard world loses all contact with them. They are helping your world partly in bringing new blood into the gene pool. I understand that most wizard families are related, often cousins, sometimes many times removed. By marrying your cousins, you are reinforcing bad genes in the mix as well as good, so more wizard children will be born without the gene that allows them to do active magic, but still able to pass this on to their offspring. Similar things have been studied in certain closed communities in the Muggle world where people married their cousins and second cousins; children were born with genetic anomalies, missing limbs, etc. If your interaction with Muggles was greater, the number of wizards would increase I am sure. Justin told me that the dormitories at Hogwarts were somewhat emptier than they could be, so it seems the number of wizards was larger when the school was first built. You are dying out!"

"You certainly have some very interesting views Dudley, but why should I grant you continued use of a very sophisticated piece of magic?"

"I don't want or need the functions that that card offered. It enabled me to interact with your world, opened my eyes to things that were often hidden in plain sight. That is what I would like to continue! I want to be able to visit my cousin and try to make amends and atone for the mistakes of our collective past. I want to be able to find where I could get access to an owl so I could send him a letter, to try and make him see I'm a reformed character. I sent him a birthday card by Muggle mail to his friend Ron's house. I don't know if he got it, or if not, I would gladly welcome his owl if it was bringing me a reply to that card."

"I see your point, but Harry's owl was killed on the night he left your house and there are no owls at Hogwarts at present. They were either killed by Death Eaters or got into the wild and eaten by Thestrals. He could not reply to you that way at the moment. The only method of communication with Hogwarts at the moment is fire talking and that is reserved for emergencies etc. But if you do not want all the magical properties that the card had, what would want it to do?"

"Enable me to see the things that are hidden, I learned a lot from being able to read some of your history books in the library at Tinworth. I got used to reading the Daily Prophet; I can no longer do this, now it is gibberish to me. What I would like is some form of identification that allows me to continue that interaction. It needn't have any charms on it, but it was useful in allowing me to call the Knight Bus and getting to Godric's Hollow. I was able to see a part of my family's history that I was unaware of. I think it helped my mother as well in that way, she told me that she felt her sister's sacrifice was all for nothing, seeing that monument has helped her see how badly she treated the one connection she had to her sister."

"I have heard everything you have said Dudley. You have raised a lot of good and valid points in your favour. I cannot give you what you want..." My face must have shown my disappointment. I was getting ready to protest, but the Minister continued. "...yet. I must talk to some of my colleagues, but in my opinion, you should get what you want. It could be that similar access is given to all Muggle relatives of witches and wizards. I hope to give you good news shortly. I will send you a reply by owl in the next few days." He waved his wand and a silver lynx leaped from the end of it and shot through the closed door. There was a knock and Percy Weasley came in. "Percy could you show Mr. Dursley back to the atrium and then return here with your father, there are a few things we need to discuss. He winked at me as I was leaving which made Percy look at me in surprise.

Percy took me back to the lifts, and we both grabbed hold of the handles. "What did he want my father for? Do you know?"

"I believe it has to do with my mobile phone," I said as we left the lifts and I handed the badge back to the wizard at the desk. "Goodbye Percy, it was nice to meet you! My condolences on the loss of your brother!" He looked at me in a surprised manner and showed me to the telephone box that was sitting on the floor of the atrium. He told me to dial '684453' and it would take me back to the street.

I left the Ministry of Magic with a sense of hope. It seemed I may be able to see Harry and his world again

Author Note; Please review. I value your opinions of my little fic. This chapter is slightly longer than usual. Who would have believed that Dudley could be so wordy? I hope you agree with what he said to the Minister and can see the importance of some of the things he said.

The Rough directions I have given Dudley to the Ministry of Magic would take him below London in approximately the area of the Houses of Parliament and the Wartime Cabinet Rooms. On the understanding that the Magical Premises would most likely be near to the Muggle ones! JK Rowling informed us how to get into the Ministry by the visitors entrance '62442' spells magic on a phone when you type it in, '684453' would spell muggle if your phone recognised the word.


	18. Chapter 18

A New Beginning.

By Jon08

Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

I have always thought that a lot is left out of the books about Dudley. What did he see when the dementors attacked him? Why did he put that cup of tea out for Harry? Did he try to change himself because of it?

Chapter 18

After spending the day looking round Muggle London, I caught the train back home to speak to Mum about my meeting with the Minister for Magic and progress in my quest to renew my friendship with Harry. She was disappointed for me that I hadn't got a definite answer, but hopeful that the Minister would grant my request. We stopped talking about Harry and magic as we heard Dad's car pull up outside. He was still being obstinate in his views about anything to do with those topics. I don't think there is any way to change his attitudes, but we could live in hope.

I waited several days with no news from the Ministry and my hopes were beginning to fail. It seemed my quest was doomed to failure. I was getting despondent that I would never get to apologise in person to Harry or see him again. But finally I was called downstairs by Mum on the Monday morning two weeks after my visit to the Ministry. I made my way downstairs to find an owl sitting on the windowsill outside the kitchen window. As I walked into the kitchen, the owl hooted and took wing towards me. It stopped on the back of the kitchen chair and held out its leg. There was a parchment envelope tied to its leg. I untied the parchment and the owl flew quickly out the window and away.

I looked anxiously at Mum and opened the envelope. Two small wooden cards the same size as a credit card fell out and landed on the table. I quickly read the letter

Ministry of Magic

Muggle Technology Department.

Dear Mr. Dursley,

I am pleased to issue to yourself to and Mrs. Petunia Dursley the first of a special kind of identity card. This card will allow you to see through illusions that hide parts of the wizard world from Muggle eyes. It will also allow you to interact with certain aspects of the Magical world, for example the Knight Bus and the entrance to Diagon Alley. It is hoped that you find the card useful and are successful in your quest to re-unite with your cousin.

I must inform you that if you wish to visit Diagon Alley, you must make your way to the Charing Cross Road in London and visit 'The Leaky Cauldron,' the barman, Tom, will be able to show you into Diagon Alley. After you are shown this, you should be able to use the card to enter yourself.

I must add that the letter you had delivered to our house by Muggle post was eventually forwarded to your cousin after the battle of Hogwarts, by our family owl. I do not know his response to the letter as unfortunately our family owl, Errol has not made it back yet.

Yours

Arthur Weasley,

Minister of Muggle Technology.

PS. I understand I have you to thank for my promotion to the head of a new Ministry department.

I finally had what I was hoping for, the chance to try and speak to Harry and try to make up for the mistakes of the past. I picked up one of the two cards, but it felt wrong in my hand. I turned it over and written on the front was 'Mrs. Petunia Dursley, Muggle Relative.' I handed it to Mum and picked up the other. It felt different to the other, as if it was mine. On the front it read 'Dudley Dursley, Muggle Relative.' I would be able to try and make my way to Hogwarts and see Harry. The first obstacle in my quest was over. Now it was up to Harry. Would he want to have anything to do with me after the way I had treated him in the past. I hoped so.

I checked the date and saw that today was the 27th of July. It was Harry's birthday on Friday 31st. I was going to try and make it to Hogwarts for that. It would be over a year since I had seen him and I could give him the first proper birthday present he had ever received from me. I informed Mum of this and she agreed it would be a good start. I already had an idea what I wanted to get him for his birthday. It was something that he needed to communicate with others in the wizard community and Mum agreed with me.

If I was going to catch the Hogwarts express at 11am, and do some shopping I would need to be in London the day before. Even if Harry would not see me, and wanted nothing to do with me, I would be away for at least two days. How were we going to keep what I was doing from Dad, his attitude was still anti-magic and anti-Harry. I had no idea how my absence could be kept from him for several days or what excuse could be given so that his suspicions were no raised. It was Mum who finally had the idea that would give me the opportunity to sort the problem out. I would tell Dad that I had invited to go on holiday with Justin and his Mother; this would give me a reason to be out of the house for up to a week and possibly longer if I was successful. If Harry did not want anything to do with me, I could stop in a hotel for a few days, just to add verisimilitude to the story or come home as if I had had a fight with Justin over something. I was desperately hoping this would not be necessary.

Dad was all for me, continuing to associate with Justin, after all an acquaintance that had gone to Eton and was a member of the aristocracy would be very useful to me in the future. Pompous prat. He was perfectly willing to take time off work and drive me to Justin's house there and then, but I said no, arrangements had been made and they would be meeting me in London at the station. I was on my way.

On the Thursday morning, I said my goodbyes to Dad as he left for work, he was still trying to allow me to let him drive me to London, but no, I was grateful that he was willing to take the time off work, but arrangements had all been made and there was no need. Finally Mum and I got him out of the house and off to work. As I got up to leave and hoisted the large rucksack onto my back, Mum handed me a letter to give to Harry if I got the chance, it was her apologies to Harry. I kissed her on the cheek and set off on foot for the train station to make my way to London.

I walked once up the Charing Cross Road and could see no sign of the 'Leaky Cauldron,' or where it could be. So I removed the identity card from my wallet and looked around again. There was a rather shabby looking sign over a doorway that had definitely not been there before. In fact it hadn't I recognised the two shops on either side of it, they had been next door to each other. Now the Leaky Cauldron was between them. I made way to the door and pushed it open.

A bald gentleman with a wrinkled face looked at me. "What can I get you Sir?

I remembered that Mrs. Figg had said Harry had stayed here in his third year after he blew Aunt Marge up like a balloon, so I hoped they could put me up for the one night. "I would like a room for tonight please, but first I must ask could you please show me how to get to Diagon Alley so I can change some Muggle money and make a few purchases."

"How do you not know how to get into Diagon Alley? You look old enough to have gone to Hogwarts?"

"I've finished school, thank you and I've never been to Hogwarts!"

"Ah foreign wizard school was it? Not as good as Hogwarts in my opinion, but there you are!"

"No, Muggle school, I'm going to visit wizard family at Hogwarts."

"How... What... are the charms failing on the pub? Muggles shouldn't be able to see it, unless they're with a wizard relation!"

"No your charms are still working correctly, I used this," I handed him the identity card from the Ministry. It let me see the pub, and I understand it will allow me to access Diagon Alley after I'm shown how to get there."

He looked at the card and examined it hard, waving his wand over it. "Never seen one of these things before, where'd you get it?"

"From the Ministry. I personally asked the Minister for Magic. I was provided with something similar whilst we were in hiding during the war and wanted to be able to continue the association with your world. I believe that this is one of the first issued. It may become standard for Muggle relatives of wizards!"

"Blimey! Who are you related to; to get to see the Minister and get yourself one of these things? Harry Potter?"

"Exactly, he's my cousin."

"Oh... oh right I see. If you'd like to take your stuff upstairs, room 4 is free," he handed me the card back and pointed up the stairs. "Oh... dunno if you could get in without a wand, the doors is locked by magic you see!"

I held the card up! "I believe this should help. It is supposed to act like a wand in certain ways. If it doesn't I'll be right back down."

"Ok! Up the stairs, second on the left." I put the card back in my pocket and made my way quickly up the stairs and proceeded to the second door on the left. The door looked like something from a medieval film, with a huge iron latch. I tried opening it without the card in my hand, but the latch wouldn't move. I once again took the card in my hand and it opened like magic. Inside there was a large four poster bed with another door leading off to a huge bathroom, and along one wall a wardrobe that could have easily been made into a studio flat in its own right, it was so large. I took my rucksack off my back, placed it on the bed, and made my way downstairs again.

Tom noticed my rucksack was absent. "It worked then? Whatever next, muggles with wands, what is this world coming to? If you'll follow me Mr. Dursley, I'll show you into Diagon Alley. You'll need to remember this in the future. He counted the bricks in the wall and tapped one of the bricks three times with his wand. The wall opened slowly from that point, revealing a long twisted street full of small shops. "You won't need the wand in here; there are no charms on any of the buildings in here. You'll need to change your money first, that's that building over there. He pointed out a large white building with bronze doors. That's Gringotts the wizard bank, run by goblins. I'll see you later, good luck in your shopping, he turned and left me to my own devices. I walked slowly towards Gringotts looking everywhere at once. Ollivander's Wands, Flourish and Blott's, Madam Malkin's Robes, and Quality Quidditch Supplies. Fascinating shops, which spoke of a whole new world.

I looked in the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies; there was a broom, prominently on display in the window. 'The Firebolt, broom of Champions. Price on request! It looked like one of those old fashioned brooms that were made of twigs, but it was so sleek, streamlined, it was the jet age equivalent of the broom. I eventually left the window and headed to Gringotts, there was a creature about three feet tall stood at the doorway dressed in a red and gold uniform. I looked closely at him as I passed; his hands looked longer than normal, almost as if he had an extra joint to his fingers and his shoes were longer than expected as well, probably the same on his feet then! He bowed as I walked in the door. There in front of me were to massive silver doors with something engraved into the metal

'_Enter stranger, but take heed,_

_Of what awaits the sin of greed,_

_For those who take, but do not earn,_

_Must pay most dearly in their turn,_

_So if you seek beneath our floors_

_A treasure that was never yours,_

_Thief, your have been warned, beware_

_Of finding more than treasure here.'_

I contemplated these words for a few seconds. You would have found more than treasure there, but Harry and escaped on the dragon they had kept confined under the floor. The line 'for those who take, but do not earn' could be said to be the goblin's justification for their wars on wizards. Their cultural background was completely different to wizards, who arrogantly wanted to impose their views on the goblins. How typically human of them.

I was in a hallway filled with desks at which goblins sat on high stools working diligently away at whatever it was that concerned them. There was a notice prominently in the middle of the floor, right in front of me as I walked in. You couldn't help but notice it. You had to move around it, it was deliberately placed in the way.

"Replacement of Coinage. It has been noted by the Gringotts goblins that a large number of Galleons, Sickles and Knuts are showing distinct signs of wear. In an effort to maintain our usual high standard, all coinage in your vaults will over time be replaced with new coins, this in no way affects the value of your gold, and there is no charge for this by the bank. You can at all times trust Gringotts. It is our honour to serve!" Good grief, it seemed that Kingsley Shacklebolt wasn't wasting time in implementing reforms, if that was what I thought it was and the goblins were reissuing the coinage, it had only taken two weeks to set up. He moved with astonishing speed when it suited him.

I made my way to a desk that displayed a sign saying 'Muggle Money Exchange' plainly in view on it. I handed over my money and watched as the goblin carefully examined every note then handed me a sack of Galleons. I was sure that in changing a hundred pounds into wizard money I had far too much, but I wanted to be sure. I thanked the goblin and made my way back out of the shop. In the distance at the far end of the alley I could see a sign that read 'Weasley Wizard Wheezes', I had to have a look, that was the shop owned by the surviving twin who had given me that damn sweet.

There was a note on the door in multicoloured lettering that kept on changing as I looked at it. 'Grand Re-opening 30th July.

Do you need cheering up?

Is the magic gone from your day?

Weasley's Wildfire Whizbangs.

The only way to throw a party!

I entered with some curiosity. I had heard a lot about this shop from Justin and Lisa; it was supposed to supply every type of joke item imaginable and then some. I was approached by an attractive witch in lavender robes. "Can I be of assistance to you sir? What are you looking for?"

"Actually I was looking for the proprietor, I was wondering if I could reciprocate a favour he did me? She looked at me in a slightly puzzled manner. I carried on, "I merely wish to make him choke on his own tongue as he did me!"

She looked at me in horror and called out "Mr. Weasley, I believe we've got a trouble maker in the shop." Her wand pointed quite steadily at my face.

A tall red haired gentleman came with a slightly lopsided haircut came quickly from the back of the shop. Wand in hand. "What is it Verity? Is this the troublemaker? He doesn't look like much trouble?"

"Hello, its George Weasley? Isn't it?" I held out my hand to shake his. "I was hoping I could give you some of your own sweets, preferably 'Ton Tongue Toffee' I believe it was, I think I was the first victim of your jokes." He looked at me hard, as if trying to put a name to the face. "The name is Dudley Dursley in case you've forgotten! I was sorry to hear about your brother, you have my condolences." He looked puzzled, unable to make the connection. "You came with your father and brothers to collect Harry and take him to the Quidditch World Cup and practically destroyed the living room. You dropped some toffees, which caused my tongue to swell until was almost bigger than I was."

He looked at me with dawning comprehension in his eyes. "Oi, Gred, you'll never guess who this is?"

I looked around in confusion, who was this 'Gred' and where was he? Suddenly a portrait draped in black, of someone that was obviously the first man's twin yawned and looked at me, "blimey is that really Dudley Dursley? Where's the rest of him? Forge, have you been working on some new shrinking potion without me?"

I looked up at the portrait, "no he hasn't; do you really think I'd allow either if you to test another product on me?" I said laughing. I still can't face toffee to this day. Every time I see one I think of my tongue that day, it was probably the first diet strategy that worked."

They both laughed with me, but there was uneasiness in it. The loss was still to raw, I could see the forced laughter behind the joking. "I had heard about your shop from some friends and wanted to see for myself. The first real encounter in my life with magic wasn't positive at the time, but it was one of the things I saw when I was attacked by those dementors and it showed me your reasons behind it. I learned the lesson from it, eventually. I always was a slow learner. It's finally dawned on me after 18 years that I had a cousin I bullied and picked on his entire life, and I'm going to do my best to put that right. So I really suppose I must say thank you both of you for the kick in the pants, or tongue, at least."

"Both of them laughed with me. So what are you going to do from here?" asked George. "You've got a lot of history to change. It's not going to be that easy."

"I know! I heard from Kingsley Shacklebolt that Harry's owl was killed on the night he left our house, so I thought I'd replace it. A birthday present tomorrow, to try and make up for missed birthdays in the past!"

"Right, I wish you success with that! You'll need Eeylops Owl Emporium." He gave me directions on how to find it. But I must say I'm surprised to see you in Diagon Alley at all. I can understand wanting to come to our shop when you saw it. But how did you find the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley in the first place?"

I held out the card, "this, it's one of the first ever, I got it from the new Minister of Technology. I think you've met him?"

"Minister of Technology, never heard of it, who has Kingsley given that job to? Sounds like a difficult job. Dad would be in his element with a job like that."

I laughed. "I'm sure he would and will."

"What?"

"The new Minister of Technology is a Mr. Arthur Weasley, I'm sure you've met him. In fact, I'm positive of the fact!

"Eh! You're trying not trying to pull a fast one on the world's best jokers are you?" Said the portrait and he walked quickly out of the frame."

I handed the letter that had come with the wand to George and he read it through, "Merlin, you weren't kidding. How are you, a Muggle, responsible for Dad getting a promotion to head of a new department?" I told him how I'd used a mobile phone in Kingsley's office and how that could work in a magical environment. "Blimey, Dad's muggle obsession finally did him some good. You must have been convincing with Kingsley. He's always been a bit leery with that part of Dad's life."

"That was easy; he could see the convenience of not getting on hands and knees to speak to a colleague, and having no soot on his clothes afterward. I also pointed him in the direction of helping muggle medicine. You wizards have some amazing cures and treatments, if you share them with Muggles, without revealing the magic behind them it could benefit both worlds."

"Yeah! I think Dad's obsession with Muggles went a bit far with that, he tried having a wound of his stitched up a couple of years back. So ridiculous!"

"Don't knock Muggle medicine, we've managed without Magic for years, they can do miraculous things with those stitches. Reattach limbs; attach new skin to bad wounds. Its an old technique but it works!"

"Reattach limbs eh?" Asked George pulling his hair back to show the lack of an ear on the one side. "Can they do anything with this?"

"Probably! You should see a plastic surgeon!"

"What's a plastic surgeon? Isn't plastic some Muggle material used in packing? What's that got to do with fixing my ear? Will he stick a box on the side of my head?" He laughed a little at his own joke.

"I'm not an expert but a plastic surgeon could make you a fake ear and fix it to the side of your head, possible even get your own body to grow new skin that could be shaped into a new ear. It wouldn't help your hearing if there's a problem with that, but it would look better."

Really! Ok, I'm going to look into that, thanks! Good luck with Harry!"

I shook his hand and quickly left the shop and headed for Eeylops, I wanted to buy this new owl for Harry. The shop had all sorts of owls sitting on perches. From huge great things that I'm sure could have eaten a small dog whole, complete with its collar and lead, to small owls no bigger than a tennis ball, which were labelled 'local deliveries only'. Eventually I settled for what the shopkeeper assured me was a Short Eared Owl. The markings its feathers made on its face reminded me of glasses, and consequently of Harry. I liked it. I purchased the owl, a cage to transport it and a packet of owl food that the owner said was enough for the next couple of days, until I could deliver the owl in person to Harry.

Carrying the new owl in it's cage I made my happy way back to the Leaky Cauldron, where after a good meal, I made my way to the room making arrangements for the morning. Tomorrow I was going to Hogwarts I could hardly wait.

Author note: this is a slightly longer chapter than usual, but I feel that it was needed; I particularly wanted Dudley to see the twins, for reasons that will become obvious in the next chapter. Can anyone guess why? I apologise if the conversation between the twins didn't quite gel right, never having had a brother, let alone a twin myself, I don't have the background to get the camaraderie right. I hope you enjoy the chapter and the story the way it's going. Please review and let me know. Special thanks again to everyone who has read and reviewed my story.

Author Note 2: This may seem like I've been extremely busy, two chapters at the same time, but the truth is that I've had no internet for 5 days, so both chapters have had to wait for upload!


	19. Chapter 19

A New Beginning.

By Jon08

Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

I have always thought that a lot is left out of the books about Dudley. What did he see when the dementors attacked him? Why did he put that cup of tea out for Harry? Did he try to change himself because of it?

Chapter 19

After a nice relaxed breakfast on the morning of Harry's 18th birthday, I hoisted my rucksack to my back, picked up the owl in its cage and left the Leaky Cauldron. I made my way to Kings Cross Station; I had spoken to Tom, the landlord of the Leaky Cauldron and according to him. The entrance to Platform 9¾ was to walk quickly through the barrier between platforms 9 and 10.

I sat on a bench for a few minutes drinking a cup of railway cafeteria coffee, never a pleasant experience, trust me it tasted at least a week old and was nearly cold; and watching the barrier, but saw nobody going through it. I hoped I hadn't had my leg pulled by Tom. I got to my feet, threw the paper cup in the bin and walked briskly towards the barrier and Crash. I had hit the brick wall, with a solid thunk! What was wrong, why couldn't I get in, there was still half an hour before the train was due to leave, so the barrier could not have closed like it did on Harry in his second year.

I stood there for a few minutes rubbing hard at my bruised nose, when suddenly a short fat balding gentleman with a large walrus moustache, wearing what appeared to be golfing trousers and a tweed jacket, carrying what sounded like lots of bottles in one of those soft sided briefcases, glanced quickly around and walked quickly and calmly through the wall and onto the platform. It was still open! What was wrong? Why hadn't I got through? I reached into the pocket of my leather jacket, to get the phone and call Mum, to tell her I couldn't get onto the platform, when instead, my hand touched my wallet. Of course, the special wand, I needed to be touching it for it to work. I felt such a twit. I took the card from my wallet and picked up the owl's cage and once again walked up to the barrier, eyes closed. I didn't hit anything. I opened my eyes when I could smell smoke and found myself on a platform with a large red steam locomotive ready to depart. The name on the train was 'Hogwarts Express'. I had made it. The train was only three carriages long, surely they needed more carriages than that? Suddenly what looked like a mother and two children aged about 9 or 10 walked through the barrier and the train seemed to get a little 'foggy' and there was another carriage at the end of the train. It was now four carriages long. The mother and her children lifted their luggage onto the last carriage and climbed aboard it. I climbed aboard the train just behind the engine. I remember hearing somewhere on some television programme that I watched because it was between two I wanted to watch, that this was the best place to sit to avoid the smoke on a steam train. I removed my rucksack and went into the first compartment, the large gentleman I had seen enter the platform was sitting in there on his own. "Do you mind if I sit here?"

"No problem my boy, take a seat? I haven't seen you before, did you get home schooled or attend one of the foreign schools?"

"No I went to my local high school!" I saw his face get a slightly perplexed look on his face. "Muggle School!"

His face lit up, "you're a Muggle? My dear boy, so pleased to meet you. How did you get onto the platform? I thought there were Muggle repelling charms on the platform entrance!"

"there are, I bashed my nose the first time I tried to get through!"

"sorry! You bashed your nose the first time! How did you get through the second time then?"

"I just walked through, but I was holding this in my hand." I held the wand card up. "It's from the Ministry!"

He took the card from me and looked hard at it, turning it over several times in his hands. Interesting bit of magic my boy, it says you're a Muggle relative. If you don't mind me asking, who are you related to? I don't recognise the name Dursley; of course it could be in the few years of my retirement."

"Er! I'm Harry Potter's cousin!"

"Harry Potter, my dear boy, you must tell me everything about him. It was my pleasure to teach him potions in his 6th year. Brilliant potion maker, not seen his like in years. Of course his greatest achievement is his defeat of 'You Know Who' recently, but you must know the real Harry, the boy himself, do tell!"

I was about to tell him that I really didn't know Harry that well, well the door to the compartment opened again to reveal a huge man-shape in the doorway. "Morning Horace!" said a familiar voice. One I'd heard a few months back on Potterwatch and for the first time seven years ago today. It was Hagrid.

I looked up at him and held out my hand to shake. "It's Hagrid isn't it? You may not remember me but we met seven years ago!"

He looked at me with no sign of recognition. "Seven years ago, you say? Sorry I don't recognise ya!"

"Oh come on," I said, "how many people do you meet in the middle of the night with a birthday cake in your pocket; in a hut in the middle of the sea and give a pig's tail to?"

He still looked perplexed, and then suddenly his face lit up in a huge grin. "Blimey, it's not the Dursley boy is it? What was your name now?"

"It was and still is Dudley!"

"Tha's right, stupid bloody name if you ask me! I mean who calls their kid after a bloody town. I ask yer."

"It's a hell of a lot better than Duddykins or Dudders, that my parents have only just got out of the habit of calling me. The embarrassment I would have felt if ever one of my friends heard that!"

"Duddykins, surely they stopped calling you sommat daft like that before you started school?"

"Well yes, you're right there it was just before I started school, St Piran's Comprehensive in Tinworth, last September."

Blimey, if my Dad 'ad a called me sommat like that when I were 17, I'd have sat on 'im. Course, he were dead by then, died just after I started Hogwarts. If'n I had sat on him, 'twould have killed him anyway I were already six feet seven when I started Hogwarts. Always been big for me age you see!"

"So how big should a half giant be by 11 then?"

"You know about that? Are you positive you're Dudley Dursley," he was no pointing the large pink umbrella at me, the same one that he'd been carrying that same night he'd given Harry his letter. The Dursley's were the worst sort of Muggle imaginable! You can't be him and on this train!"

I handed Hagrid the card that was still in my hand, "I was just explaining to this gentleman here about this when you came in. It's a special type of wand for Muggles. Enables me to see things that are hidden, like the Leaky Cauldron, and it gives me some sort of magical interaction ability; I could get through the barrier at Kings Cross and open and lock my room in the Leaky Cauldron last night. I can't do real magic though, unfortunately, I wish I could."

Hagrid examined the card in his hand, "How'd you get that?"

"While we were in Tinworth we had something similar that allowed us to draw money from a special bank account, but it also let us see stuff. I started reading the Daily Prophet while I was there. I'm positive it gained me, the first real friend I've had in my life." I went on to tell about the day I met Justin, nearly knocking him over as I left the shop and the next time we had met and I how I was reading the Daily Prophet and he thought I was a snatcher."

Both the teacher and Hagrid laughed at this and I continued to tell them of my year in Tinworth and my subsequent visit to the Ministry of Magic. "You should have seen the look on the security wizard's face when I told him I couldn't hand him my wand as I was a Muggle. Such bemusement, he was on his knees in front of a fireplace so fast you could almost hear him apparate there."

I carried on and told them of everything I had spoken to the Minister about, Muggle technology, medicine, slavery laws, and economics.

"Slavery!" said Horace, "why slavery, there's none of that in our world I'll have you know. We're very civilised."

"Civilised Professor!" I replied with some venom in my tone. "You call yourselves civilised when you have an entire race at your beck and call, forced into wearing rags, at the same time as they cook your food, do your housework and your laundry. I'd hardly call that civilised. The house elves work and slave for you and most wizards treat them like dirt. I've only met two, and they were happy with their lot, they believe this rubbish about being given clothes is the ultimate shame. It means they are being cast out into the wide world. Dismissed. Justin and I managed to persuade his house elf, Biskit, that she could make her own clothes. That way she could know that she was a valued member of the family and deserved her own dignity. She was so happy after that, of course the first few things she made for herself were in effect just the same old pillow case that she altered with a few stitches here and there, but she was so proud of being able to wear clothes and still be working for his family. It was the ultimate status symbol."

"That's certainly an interesting point of view, but most house elves I've seen are happy with their lot. They don't want to change their status."

"Have you actually asked them? They enjoy working for wizards, yes, but wizards treat them with contempt. They don't complain, because they think they'll be dismissed. They deserve their contract of employment, or more properly enslavement, renegotiated."

I was just beginning to think I should have got a sandwich earlier to eat on the journey; I was getting hungry, when the professor opened his briefcase and pulled out what looked like a red and white tablecloth. He opened it, turned it and opened it again. He gave it a flick, waved his wand, and suddenly there was a fully laid table in the middle of the compartment. "Would you care to join me in a spot of lunch, Hagrid, Dudley, I always find that the fare on the trolley upsets my digestion. Come on tuck in! There's pheasant, pate de foie gras, truffles, and caviar, oh and to drink I have this!" From his copious bag he pulled at large bottle which he uncorked with a wave of his wand, "best oak matured mead, and he proceeded to pour us each a glass."

I cautiously sipped the drink, remembering the incident over a year ago when Dumbledore had called to pick up Harry, and sniggered into my glass at the memory of that night. "Wha's wrong Dudley? Are you alright?" asked Hagrid concerned.

"Just remembering the last time I saw some of this stuff," I indicated waving my glass. "Dumbledore had called to pick up Harry and had conjured us all a drink, at the time I was still too afraid of magic to drink it. The undrunk glasses of mead kept hitting us on the heads, it seems quite funny now. I remember Dumbledore telling my Mum and Dad off for not treating Harry as a son, but at least they'd spared him the damage that they had done to me! Of course they denied it, and at the time I wondered about it myself. But I understand now what he meant."

"What do mean, dear boy?" asked the professor. "You seem a perfect gentleman to me, I can't say I completely agree with some of your ideas, but they come from the heart."

"I wasn't a very nice kid, growing up; I'm ashamed to say I was a spoilt brat. I constantly bullied Harry and made fun of the fact he'd got no friends, he was a freak, I made his life hell. I had begun to see that Harry should have been a friend, or like a brother to me. But it also made me see, that my parents had also done their share of damage to me. I was grossly overweight, could hardly write, yet to them I could do no wrong. They saw nothing wrong in what they'd done to Harry. They felt fully justified in their actions. It was through what was said that night that I began to try to become a better human being. Well a human being at all."

"My boy. We've all done things in our past that we're not proud about. Why I myself did things that I'm ashamed of, but it's what you do with your mistakes that defines who you are! I have tried to atone for mine, and you are trying to do something about yours, that's what matters." He looked out the window at the scenery, waving his wand he packed everything away in his briefcase, "we're nearly there, we should get ready."

We alighted from the train, taking our small amount of luggage with us. All the other passengers alighted from the train, getting into open topped carriages that I would have called horse-drawn except they weren't horses. "What on earth are those things?

"What things? They're perfectly normal carriages!"

"Those winged scaly things pulling the carriages!" during this short conversation all the carriages had taken and most had gone off in the direction of the village. I picked up the cage and looked at my travelling companions. "Looks like we're walking to the school, which way is it?"

"Come on, we'll go across the lake," said Hagrid walking if in another direction. We both followed. Those creatures are Thestral's you can only see them if you've seen and understood about death."

"My grandparents died when I was very little, I don't really remember them. Does that count?"

"Not really, have you actually seen somebody die, or dead?"

"I've never seen anybody die or a dead body, but I do understand about what it means. And I've met George and a portrait his brother, Fred, so I suppose that must be how I can see them. I met both twins before the Quidditch World Cup, when they came with their Dad to collect Harry, so I saw them before and after the death."

"Tha' must be it." Hagrid climbed into a small boat that was tied to the jetty, "come on Horace, Dudley, it should take all three of us!" We awkwardly got into the boat, which managed to support the three of us without sinking. Hagrid untied the boat and just told it on. Without any means of propulsion the boat went slowly out across the lake. I looked ahead hoping to catch my first glimpse of Hogwarts, but all I could see was a large ruin in the distance.

"Is that the school, that ruin? It looks dangerous!"

"It's not as bad as it was, we're getting it rebuilt, and it's nowhere near a ruin anymore." The professor said looking at me.

"Are you kidding it looks like it's ready to fall down; in fact most of it already has."

"Is that what you're seeing? I thought you could see through illusions now. That wand card thing you got from the Ministry."

"Crap, I forgot that!" I got the card from my wallet and looked again, the castle was transformed, large towers, sparkling windows, and it was a magnificent sight.

We went under a large archway into a large cavern, with a jetty at the back. The boat bumped into the jetty and we climbed quickly out. There was a large stone stairway leading upwards, Hagrid and the professor began to ascend. I followed wondering where in the school was leading to.

Please Review: The review is the best news a fan author can get and I very much appreciate those I have got. All loving my little fic! Thank you so much.

Author note: the next chapter will see the first meeting of Harry and Dudley in over a year! What will Harry's reaction be to the presence of his cousin in his once safe grounds of Hogwarts?


	20. Chapter 20

A New Beginning.

By Jon08

Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

I have always thought that a lot is left out of the books about Dudley. What did he see when the dementors attacked him? Why did he put that cup of tea out for Harry? Did he try to change himself because of it?

Chapter 20

We pulled up to a large wooden door that Hagrid knocked on three times and it opened in front of us. We were in a large entrance hall, like some huge hotel lobby; there was a large staircase at the back seeming to lead up forever in a series of landings and separate set of stairs. As I watched there was movement up above and one staircase was swinging across from one landing to another. "Oh, you'll need to be careful, the staircases move, but I don't think anyone has ever fallen off the end."

"What!"

"Relax, I'm joking, there are spells that prevent anyone falling off. It's extremely safe."

A tall, strict looking woman in black robes with her hair in a tight bun came out of a room with two gargoyles guarding the door, "Hagrid, Horace, you're beck did you get everything you needed in London?" she asked in a Scottish accent. "And who is your young companion; he's not a student here, or even a former one?"

"Erm Professor McGonagall, allow me to introduce Dudley Dursley, he's Harry..."

"Yes. I know, Harry Potter's cousin, I recognise the name. I must say you are one of the last people I expected to see here Mr. Dursley. You haven't got a good reputation in certain parts of this school. I believe some of your cousin's former dorm mates would gladly hex you into next week if they knew who you were! Why are you here and why do you have an owl?"

"It's a birthday present for Harry! An effort to make amends. I haven't got him one in all the time I've known him and Kingsley Shacklebolt told me his had been killed on the night he left Little Whinging. It's not much to make up for 17 years of neglect and abuse, but it's a start and something he might find of use. Please, I have to try!"

"Oh! I'm not going to stop you, but I will be ready to protect you if the situation gets out of hand. Your cousin will be through there in the Great Hall. There's no proper dining service at the moment, but everyone just asks for what they want and they get it. I suggest you make your way in."

I nervously walked into the Great Hall and looked around trying to spot Harry. Professor McGonagall tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to a black head on the far table next to a couple of red heads and a bushy haired brunette. I swallowed and with my packages made my way slowly towards them. The two redheads saw me and gestured to Harry who turned around to see what had caught their attention. The look on Harry's face was hard to read. Was he glad to see me? Was he going to turn me into a toad or something? I didn't know. I continued walking slowly towards him.

Harry stood up, "Dudley, what are you doing here in Hogwarts? I thought you, were in wizard protection?"

"I was! But, when you won, they came and told us we could go home. I wanted to try and apologise for the way I've treated you all our lives!"

"I know, I got the late birthday card you sent me. You had some interesting things to say, but it still doesn't say what you are doing here. This is the last place I expected to see you. If I admit it, probably the last place I wanted to see you."

"I know, but I had to come," I handed him the caged owl, and started to remove my rucksack to get the card I had secreted somewhere in there. "Happy Birthday Harry," I handed him the card, and stood waiting nervously for a reaction.

"Where did you get an owl and how did you get here? Hold it, Kreacher told me you'd managed to call him using some sort of wand. Did you keep it after they sent you home?"

"No, I went to London and spoke to the Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, pleaded my case for something similar so I could come and see you here, to try and apologise. Me and Mum have the prototypes of a special type of ID card." I handed him mine.

He looked at the card, "your Mum, I find that hard to believe. She's always been the most vocal about me being a freak, apart from your Dad."

"She's changed, we've been listening to Potterwatch over the past year, she cried when she found out you were alive. She's even been on the Knight Bus to Godric's Hollow."

"You're joking!"

"No. I've been there myself, took these photos." I searched in the rucksack for the photos I'd taken after Ernie had magicked my camera that day. There were several pictures of the monuments in the village to his parents and one particular one that showed me looking at the memorial in the village, Ernie had taken it for me. There were quite a few of his parents destroyed house and their grave.

I looked at Harry and he was crying, oh crap what had I done now? "Why did you take a picture of their grave and who put the new wreath on it?"

"I did. I may not have known them but they were still my Aunt and Uncle! Well technically, Ernie did, the driver off the Knight Bus. I wanted to buy some flowers but he used his wand to put it there! Hang on, new wreath? You mean you've been there too?"

"I was there on Christmas Eve, I put that wreath that was dead you can see in your photos, well technically it was Hermione with her wand." He laughed. "You and I both put a wreath on my parent's grave by proxy. How ironic is that?

I looked hard at him. What was he saying? Was he happy about this? Was he unhappy? What were his feelings concerning this? I couldn't tell! He sat back down on the bench he had earlier got up from. I stood watching him; I still had no idea what he was feeling. He motioned for me to sit down next to him. I did warily. Was this to lead me into some false sense of security before he hexed me or something? He still hadn't given me any answer, would he forgive me.

"So, deny it or not Big D, I really think that dementor blew a new personality into you. You've changed over the past year in ways I wouldn't believe."

"Please Harry, its Dudley, I'm not proud of the name Big D, that guy was a bully who had no friends, just some cronies who hung out with him in order to avoid being duffed up by him. I don't think I had any real friends until your people took us into protection."

"What about Duddykins or Dudders?" he asked with a laugh.

"Oh God please, not you too! I'm not five anymore. I shouted at Mum and Dad several times over the last year about that. Finally they stopped calling me by those stupid nicknames. I think the last time I heard it was the day Mum went to Godric's Hollow and I almost destroyed the kitchen making a curry!"

"Oh no! Come on seriously you in a kitchen. I didn't think you even knew how to use the toaster!"

"I wasn't quite that bad, I could do toast, tea and a sandwich, but definitely not a curry. I cooked enough rice to feed and army and ruined one saucepan setting it on fire."

"You burnt a saucepan! And you're still alive. What did your Mum think of that?"

"Well she ate the curry, not with much enthusiasm it must be said. But she ate it all. She's been giving me cooking lessons since then. I think I've got better. I haven't destroyed any more saucepans and even Dad hasn't complained much lately about my cooking. Mum wants me to be able to feed myself properly when I go to university."

"You university! I thought you were going to work for your Dad at Grunnings? You don't need university for that, just a Dad who owns the company."

"I'm not going to work for Dad. I want to become a social worker. I want to help other kids who are being abused like you were. I have good expectations of my A level results. I have 3 provisional offers from the universities I applied to."

"What did you study; I didn't even know you could read."

"Harry, I was never stupid. Just had no motivation to do anything. I was always told I was the perfect son and I believed it. I got a bit of a kick in the pants when Professor Dumbledore picked you up last year. Him telling Mum and Dad that I'd been abused by them."

"Merlin, you have changed."

"I hope so and for the better."

"It certainly seems like a change for the better from what I've seen so far." He looked at the owl, "what can you tell be about the owl?"

"It's a Short Eared Owl. That's all I can really say. I brought it because the feathers on its face reminded me of your glasses!" I stopped, wondering whether I'd maybe said something stupid. I hoped he wouldn't be mad at me for what I'd just told him. It was true, but he might not see it as a compliment, it could be seen as teasing. Oh! Crap! Have I put my foot in it?

He looked into the owls face! He laughed! "You're right, its wearing glasses. It makes it look wise, how about mine, do they make me look wise?"

I laughed. "No, not really, they make you look my cousin. I don't think I ever remember seeing you without them. Although I'm ashamed to admit I must have broken them several times. Where did you keep getting new ones from?"

"Oh please Dudley! It's called magic."

"Oh right! Of course!" I laughed with him.

We both suddenly realised we had an audience; there were three stunned friends of his watching us. I looked at them. "Hello, I recognise Ginny and what must be Ron, you've changed a lot since the Quidditch World Cup. The other pretty one must be Hermione. Pleased to meet you. I held out my hand. Looking slightly bemused she shook my hand. Ron was glaring hard at me. What had I said wrong? Surely he didn't think he should be called pretty. He wasn't my type. I looked at him in bemusement.

Ginny laughed, "Ron, he's just being polite." I looked hard a Ron and he was slowly turning red, blimey that fellow could blush. I get it Hermione was 'his' girlfriend.

"Sorry, Hermione, Ginny, I prefer blondes. I wonder if one I know is here?" Hermione looked puzzled, but Ginny grinned and nodded. I stood up and looked around, but couldn't see any sign of her in this huge hall. I could make out a couple of blonde heads, but the hair was too short, they must be boys. Harry was also looking at me in a strange way. Who else did I know here? Ginny stood up and looked around. She sat back down at the tables, pulled a Galleon from her pocket and pointed her wand at it. She put the galleon back in her pocket and smiled at me. I turned to look around the great hall to see who stood up, but no one did.

Suddenly the large entrance doors opened and Lisa was standing there. She walked over to the table, sat next to me and gave me a kiss. Harry looked like his jaw was about to fall off and hit the floor. "I don't believe it. You have a witch for a girlfriend? What do your Mum and Dad think about that?"

"Mum and Dad don't know! Mum knows that Justin was a wizard, but not about Lisa. Hang on, I forgot this." I rummaged in the bottom of my rucksack and eventually found the envelope Mum had given me and handed it to Harry. "Mum gave me this for you!"

Harry looked at it. "Your Mum sent me a letter! What's it say? Never darken her doorstep again? Don't corrupt my Duddykins? You don't seriously expect me to believe she's changed, do you?"

"Just reread her letter. It might surprise you!"

He opened the envelope and several photos fell out with the hand written note. Harry looked at the pictures with tears in his eyes. They were the same pictures I had seen on that night in Tinworth that I had burned a curry. He cried most when he came across the invitation to his parents wedding and the picture of his Mum tickling his chin. "I didn't know that your parents were invited to the wedding." He held the picture of his Mum tickling his chin to his chest, and wept. Eventually his tears subsided and he opened the letter from Mum.

Harry,

I know you must hate me and I am sure you will never forgive me for the way I've treated you all these years. My behaviour towards you has been terrible and for that I am sorry, but I saw in you, all that had been taken from me. You were a reminder that Lily had been abandoned by the magical world and forgotten, left to die. You were, I felt, given to me to care for in some way by the magical community as some sort of apology for her death and I resented you for that reason.

I took all my frustration and rage on the wizard world out on you. I could have raised you and Dudley as brothers, and should have, but in my arrogance I could only see that Lily was dead and we had to look after you. I could have refused to care for you and let some wizard family look after you, but you were family, albeit family that reminded me of a tragedy.

I can only ask that you find it in yourself to try and be a friend to Dudley. He has no real blame to bear in this. He was only following the lead of his parents, wrong though it was. If you can't forgive him for his past treatment of you, please at least try to be a cousin to him. You're the only link he has with his Aunt and Uncle, and he your only link to your family.

I wanted to say some of this to you, the night we left. Your world was arranging for us to be safe, in spite of our abuse of you all your life. It made me understand that despite everything we had done to you, they still understood we were your family and I can only hope that we can be properly a family at some point in the future.

Yours in hope,

Petunia Dursley.

Your Aunt if you wish it to be.

He read the letter and slowly put it down on the table, "I never understood why she treated me, like she did. Even after I found out about the charm protecting me, it didn't make sense. Now I think I can understand her a little better. I'm not ready to forgive her or you yet, but I don't think I want to cut you out of my life completely either. I think we should all have a new beginning here and see what happens..."

THE END for now

Please review: I know it seems a bad place to finish, but I believe this is the end of this tale. For now. It is literally A New Beginning! Thank you to all those lovely people who have read and reviewed my small work of fiction.


	21. Chapter 21

Author Note: If you would like to find out how everything turns out for Harry and Dudley and their new beginning. Look for the sequel 'The Start of Something New.' Jon08.S


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